Argentina is an awful market for airlines — there is really no other way to look at it historically — but that hasn’t stopped some brave souls from trying their hand at making a living. Flybondi is one of those airlines, and it looked to be nearing the end in 2024. But now, fresh with a new owner, it is back, and it is buying new Boeing and Airbus airplanes. Why both? Great question. But first, we need to back up.
Fun fact: my first ever B737NG flight was in Argentina. I flew a B737-700 from Iguazú to Buenos Aires/Aeroparque with a stop in Posadas on LAPA back on the last day of 1998. LAPA was an early attempt to break the strangehold monopoly of Aerolíneas Argentinas (AR) and its then-sister company Austral (since merged) at a time when privatization was having a moment.
LAPA grew fast, and travelers were hungry for low fares and anything better than AR with its high fares and limited capacity… but it did have excellent fax service. LAPA even flew to Atlanta at one point, but its downfall was swift. Shortly after 9/11, it was bankrupt and sold to a new owner. One other owner would take a swing at it before it failed for good in 2003. (This will be relevant later.) Another operator, Southern Winds, collapsed in the early days of 2006. From that point, AR settled into its undisputed place as the largest domestic carrier with LAN Argentina (later LATAM) taking second place in a comfortable duopoly. The market was static until about 2012 when AR began to grow, but that didn’t change the makeup of the competition.
Domestic Argentina Seats by Airline
Data via Cirium
Avianca made a brief attempt to enter the Argentinian market in 2017 after acquiring Macair Jet and rebranding it, but that was never even a big enough blip to show on my chart above. It wasn’t until 2018 when conditions became favorable for competition under President Macri that real competition was created.
Yes, there was the hare-brained and short-lived effort by Norwegian to find a place to put airplanes in the winter. But it was really the start of JetSmart and Flybondi that ushered in the era of low fares. Unfortunately, the political winds in Argentina are ever-changing and then made life difficult for everyone but AR once the government swung left and President Alberto Fernández took office in 2019.
LATAM actually became so fed up that it pulled out of the domestic market entirely at the beginning of the pandemic, shutting down its local subsidiary. That and the quick retreat of Norwegian was a real blow for the competitiveness of the domestic market. The third problem? The government may not have been able to reasonably shut down JetSmart and Flybondi since they were providing low fares for the people, but they could make life miserable for them all in the name of protecting AR.
Flybondi had staked its success on the use of El Palomar, a third Buenos Aires airport west of the city that offered lower costs and convenience for some of the population. During the pandemic, the government shut down El Palomar’s commercial service. It has not returned even under the current government’s pro-competitive stance, and it likely never will.
Despite this, Flybondi has grown today to have 15 B737-800s in its fleet, and it was either the second or third largest airline in the country. It was also a complete and total mess of an operation. It got so bad that at the end of 2024, it was told by the government to present a plan to fix its operation or face penalties. Apparently in November of that year, it canceled 20 percent of its flights.
This would seem like an airline that should have been shut down and left for dead, but this is Argentina. Remember when I said my story about LAPA getting new ownership would be relevant later? Here we are. Once again, new ownership came out of the woodwork to rescue an airline.
Earlier this year, COC Global Enterprise bought a majority stake in the airline. This is an investment company led by Leonardo Scatturice and, well, that’s… worth discussing further. Leonardo is an Argentinian whose previous company was investigated for espionage about a decade ago. He is very well connected, but after a scandal, he moved to Panama and in 2020, to the United States.
It seems the Leonardo has had scandal follow him, but that hasn’t shut him out of government, at least when it is controlled by the right. He has been a top advisor to President Milei’s chief strategist and a leader behind CPAC in Latin America. His businesses are a complex web that includes several aviation companies, but none are an airline like Flybondi.
So what does he want with Flybondi? Your guess is as good as mine, but he has committed to putting money into the airline and that is actually happening. In fact, he just placed an order to replace the 15 B737-800s with 15 A220-300s and 10 B737-10 MAXs. So it seems pretty clear his goal isn’t to actually create a more efficient, profitable airline.
Splitting fleets is nothing new, but splitting a fleet when you only have 25 airplanes? That is not generally the path to riches. You’d think that if you wanted the MAX, then maybe the -7 and -10 would make more sense just for the commonality. But instead, he has split the order.
I do find myself wondering if this is an attempt to curry political favor in the US. After all, he is well-connected to President Trump and is politically active. But why do I say that? In the press release, there is a line that says “The company will incorporate 15 Airbus A220-300 aircraft with an option for 5 more. This model, manufactured in Alabama (USA)….”
It is normal for an American airline to tout buying airplanes made in the U.S. of A. But this is an Argentinian airline, so why does that matter? The release didn’t bother saying anything about where the Boeing planes were built. There is also a quote from Flybondi’s CEO saying “We aim to incorporate a balanced mix of aircraft from both manufacturers, and for this, we have the strong commitment and support of our new American investor.” That is technically true, even if Leonardo himself is Argentinian. But why even bother saying that?
Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, and that this is a legitimate investment to try and make Flybondi a winner. I just can’t help but think there has to be something else going on here. COC already faces an uphill battle of getting Flybondi into a decent position, and saddling the airline with expensive aircraft that lack commonality does not seem like the move you’d make if that was your actual goal.
For now, Flybondi is riding high, but I imagine this is not a story that will have a happy ending. I just can’t figure this one out.
