Sunday, August 9, 2015

Alas Uruguay Update: Certification is Delayed, 2nd 737-300 is delivered, Planned Routes Announced



Alas Uruguay continues the process of obtaining its airline operating certificate, which it began in July 2014 and was originally expected to take six months but has now surpassed a year.  One of the problems encountered by the planned start-up carrier was missing documentation for one of the engines of its first 737-300, CX-OAA (c/n 28569/2996).  This engine, in turn, was due to be replaced with another one in early August.  Certification of the airline is expected in the next month or two but certification has been imminent for several months now. 

In the meantime, the airline took delivery of its second 737-300, CX-OAB (c/n 28869/2887) on 02Jul15.  Like CX-OAA, CX-OAB is leased from Irish lessor Aergo Capital and previously flew for Air Ukraine.  Alas Uruguay's third 737-300, leased from Cara Capital of Deerfield Beach, Florida and expected to be registered CX-OAC, is currently being painted in the Uruguayan airline's colors in Tucson, Arizona with its tentative arrival in Montevideo (MVD) scheduled for mid-August. 

Alas Uruguay recently announced the routes that it plans to fly initially, without giving specific start dates, as follows:

 Montevideo (MVD) - Buenos Aires Aeroparque (AEP), 5x/daily 

 Montevideo (MVD) - Asuncion (ASU), 1x/daily

Montevideo (MVD) - Santiago (SCL), 1x/daily

Montevideo (MVD) - Sao Paulo Guarulhos (GRU), 2xdaily

 Punta del Este (PDP) - Buenos Aires Aeroparque (AEP), 1x/daily 

While the airline hopes to start these services soon after certification, Portal de America reports that route permissions from the Paraguayan authorities should take approx. 30 days, the Chileans 45 days and Brazilians 90-120 days.  And the Argentine aviation agency has approved few new route requests at all during the last few years (although more have been approved lately, especially from Brazilian airlines). 

The best photo that the editor of this blog has seen yet of Alas Uruguay 737-300, CX-OAA is the following from World Airline News:


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