How is the newly deregulated domestic market doing?
 

Over on airliners dot net there is a thread highlighting the implementation of deregulated domestic flying in Argentina.

Is it "working" in favor of the flying customer?

Happy wandering
Fred
Argentina deregulated

I guess it's too early to draw any conclusions as de-regulation started 24 hours ago.

AR really set the game with one way domestic tickets for as low as 500 pesos (18 USD) and a huge advertisement campaign. This forced LATAM to react with tickets for the same price with 1 checked-in bag (AR fares are hand-baggage only), and Flybondi went ultra-low-cost with tickets for 200 pesos (7 USD) one-way.

Both AR and Flybondi's websites crashed several times during the day, and according to the press all three airlines report a +400% rise on ticket sales vis-à-vis any normal day.

Andes and Avianca said they would not join the price war -- understandable, since Andes is already low-cost(ish) and Avianca's routes mostly target business travelers.

This is a country where many, many people have never taken a plane because they were always told "flying is for the rich". Hopefully the de-regulation and subsequent offers show that is not the case. Today, Flybondi was selling EPA-TUC for 1,000 pesos return (36 USD) -- that is a quarter of the price of a bus ticket, and the bus takes 18 hours to Tucumán, while the plane does the journey in less than 2 hours.

Interesting first day by all accounts >

Lets review the situation at the end of the month

Interesting the LA flight route I took a couple of months ago (COR-AEP), is showing the greatly reduced price as "RESIDENTS ONLY" (AU$155 vs AU$69) as is the AR flight - albeit the difference in the two categories is a LOT smaller (AU$112 vs $AU89)

Time will influence the wandering
Fred

Agreed. But one thing I would not do is buy tickets on airlines other than LA or AR for future (several months out) travel. You never know if or rather when the shakeout will happen, and these two will still be around. It isn't just that you could lose your $ if you buy a ticket on QUIlmes Elpalomar Bonaerense Rivadavia Airlines (QUIEBRA), but that when you need to replace it with a ticket on a more stable carrier, there may be nothing left, or the fares might be $$$$$.

Wouldnt disputing the charge with your credit card company solve things should some of the new carriers go under....?? Thoughts....?

I have to say Im a little more optimistic about the chances for survival of these low cost carriers... yes there are still some hurdles especially with the operational aspects of the "new" El Palomar airport - just to name one relevant point, but the Macri administration seems committed to developing air travel in Argentina. I would be more worried about the fate of various long distance bus companies as they will be the ones that will very quickly lose a relevant amount of revenues as more Argentines take to the skies for the first time.

Stay tuned.... its going to be a very interesting couple of months. La Nacion recently ran an article about at least 5 (five) new players that are seriously looking to enter the Argentine Market, so things could continue to get more spicy very very quickly.

Depends on the country of issue, length of time after purchase, credit v. debit (bad bad bad) purchase, etc. This is why I would not buy a ticket several months out on any carrier other than LA or AR. And it certainly doesn't solve "your carrier no longer exists and there aren't any available seats to your destination."

I think it's a giant step forward for Argentina. ^
Hopefully the regional rail network gets sorted out next. Five hours to cover 100 miles is a joke.

The "explosion" in pax hasnt happened yet.... I think its going to me more of a gradual process, but time will tell. Also, I think that the game plan is to expand operations at El Palomar so one would think that they have been planning to staff more as flights move over there. Cant see how AR is going to be needing more staff anytime soon, perhaps they will need less and these folks can go over to other carriers that are growing....? (wishful thinking of sorts, I know).....