Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Hi Fly Malta operated first A380 commercial service to Argentina on 23Jul19

Venezuelan airline Estelar wet-leased Airbus A380, 9H-MIP (c/n 006) from charter specialist Hi Fly Malta in July 2019 to temporarily replace one of its A340-300's that was undergoing heavy maintenance.  The airframe in question was originally delivered to Singapore Airlines as 9V-SKC on 11Mar08, making it one of the oldest A380's, even though it has only been in service some 12 years.  It was the first A380 to have moved from the airline that it was delivered to onto a second carrier. 

One of the main routes that Hi Fly Malta flew the A380 on for Estelar was Caracas (CCS) - Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) with the first flight on this sector arriving in the Argentine capital on 23Jul19, making it the third visit by an A380 to Argentina and first commercial service by the type to the country, the other two visits having been part of promotional tours in December 2007 and March 2012.  

Blog posting including a photo of the first visit:

https://argentina-airline-news.blogspot.com/search/label/A380

Sources:

Friday, June 7, 2019

ROUTE UPDATE: American started Miami (MIA) - Cordoba (COR) service on 06Jun19


American Airlines introduced regularly scheduled flights between Miami (MIA) and Cordoba (COR) when American 767-323ER, N398AN (c/n 29605/748), took off from the Florida airport to Argentina at 10:57pm on the evening of 06Jun19.  The aircraft landed in Cordoba (COR) at 7:52am local time on 07Jun19 to a traditional "water salute" from the airport's fire engines.  

The first southbound flight had 176 passengers on board, making for an 86% load factor, including a youth choir from San Francisco consisting of 70 teenagers and adults traveling to Argentina and Uruguay on a concert tour.  

After two hours on the ground, the aircraft took from Cordoba (COR) at 10:23am for the return journey to Miami (MIA) with 180 passengers on board (88% load factor) plus 15 tons of Chilean salmon.  Indeed, the flight is expected to offer logistical cost savings to exporters of perishable goods, such as producers of blueberries and cherries based in the "interior", many of whom currently rely on lengthy and costly ground transportation to Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) to fly their goods to destination markets overseas.     

The new flights are perhaps the most significant new airline service ever to be introduced from an airport in the Argentine "interior" (the entire country outside of the federal capital of Buenos Aires and the province of Buenos Aires).  

While other airlines fly from "interior" Argentine airports to South American points and offer connections to several of the most important cities in the United States and Europe, American's new service connects to dozens of destinations in the US, Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, Canada and Europe directly through Miami (MIA), including the carrier's hubs in Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW), Chicago-O'Hare (ORD), Charlotte (CLT), Philadelphia (PHL) and Los Angeles (LAX) with further connections to another 80+ cities in the US and beyond. 

American's new flights between Cordoba (COR), Argentina's second-largest city, and Miami (MIA), will operate 4x/weekly in both directions, joining the carrier's service between Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) and Miami (MIA), 2x/daily year-round plus a third frequency during the southern hemisphere summer, New York Kennedy (JFK) 1x/daily, Dallas-Ft. Worth (DFW) 1x/daily and Los Angeles (LAX) 3x/weekly, this last service having been introduced on 20Dec18.     

Despite the new service, American Airlines aircraft are no strangers to Cordoba (COR), with approx. two dozen planes having been diverted from Buenos Aires Ezeiza (EZE) during the last 20 years, mostly due to weather, including a DC-10-30 and several MD-11's, 767-300's, 777-200's and 777-300's.    

Sources:

https://www.lavoz.com.ar/negocios/vuelo-de-american-de-cordoba-miami-debuto-con-180-pasajeros-y-fernet-con-coca
https://www.lavoz.com.ar/negocios/turismo-y-cargas-focos-de-american-airlines-para-conexion-cordoba-miami
http://aeropuertocordoba.blogspot.com/2019/06/american-airlines-se-suma-la-historia.html
https://flightaware.com/live/flight/AAL223
https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/aa223#20cc7e44