ROUTE UPDATES: Aerolineas Argentinas New Flights to Miami, Rio Hondo & Summer Charters to Brazil and Mexico

Aerolineas Argentinas route news from the last couple of months:

New Rio Hondo Flights 

The airline's smaller sister carrier, Austral, started EMB-190 service from Buenos Aires Aeroparque (AEP) to Rio Hondo (RHD) on 24Aug12 with twice-weekly flights on Fridays and Sundays.  The destination is known for its thermal hot springs resort.  The two flights were transferred from the airport of the nearby provincial capital, also named Santiago del Estero (SDE). 

The Rio Hondo airport is a brand-new facility which was inaugurated on 25Jul12, a few days before the first Austral flight.  There was some debate about the need for the new airport since it is located only 37 miles (60km) from Santiago del Estero and 55 miles (90km) from Tucuman, an important northwestern city.

Source: www.aeropuertosarg.com.ar

Second Daily Miami Flight

Aerolineas Argentinas is introducing a second daily Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) - Miami (MIA) flight on 08Dec12 for the southern hemisphere summer season.  The flight, AR1304, will depart EZE in the morning, arriving in MIA the same afternoon and fly back overnight to EZE as AR1305. 

The airline's Miami service will then look like this:

Flight      Routing      Dep   Arr          Equipment   Days

AR1304    EZEMIA     1030  1740       A340-300    Daily
AR1302    EZEMIA     2315  0625+1    A340-300    Daily

AR1303    MIAEZE     0845  1945       A340-300    Daily
AR1305    MIAEZE     1945  0645+1    A340-300    Daily

Source: http://airlineroute.net/2012/08/10/ar-mia-dec12update2/

Summer Charters

Aerolineas and probably sister carrier Austral will fly summer charter service, primarily from Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) to the beach destinations of Cancun (CUN) Mexico, and Rio de Janeiro (GIG), Florianopolis (FLN), Porto Seguro (BPS) and Salvador (SSA), all in Brazil.  Service will likely be with AR 737-700's and 737-800's and possibly AU EMB-190's too.

Source: Aviacion News