DALLAS — Aerolíneas Argentinas (AR) has announced flights connecting Buenos Aires’s downtown airport, Aeroparque Jorge Newbery (AEP), with Miami (MIA) and New York (JFK).

On August 7, the Argentinian flag carrier will start service from AEP to the United States. This is the first flight to North America to depart from Buenos Aires’s downtown airport rather than Ezeiza Ministro Pistorini International Airport (EZE), which is located on the outskirts of the city.

The airline will operate flights using an Airbus A330-200 aircraft which seats 272 passengers in two cabins: 24 lie-flat seats in business class and 248 seats in economy. The airline currently has a fleet of nine A330s and will welcome its tenth before the end of the year.

Flights to MIA will depart at 11:30 PM on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Flights to JFK depart at 11:35 on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The return flight from JFK to AEP will depart at 3:25 PM on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays and will arrive at 3:25 the following day.

Ezeiza Ministro Pistorini International Airport

Buenos Aires’s primary airport, EZE, caters to international tourists departing or arriving in Argentina. However, AEP, which is near the center of Buenos Aires, previously only offered flights to neighboring countries and domestic destinations within Argentina. Passengers connecting to neighboring countries such as Paraguay, Chile, Brazil, or Columbia would have to take transportation, often taking multiple hours.

However, now because of construction improvements at AEP during the pandemic, the airport can now handle widebody aircraft such as the Airbus A330. The airport lengthened its runway from 6,890 feet to 8,225 feet and widened it to 197 feet. The construction improvements also included the installation of a new beacon system, an expansion of the international passenger terminal, and more boarding gates. 

Pablo Ceriani, President of Aerolineas Argentina, commented, “In this way, we improve our products, being more efficient with our accounts, and simultaneously, we enhance our role by bringing more tourists from the United States who can connect with all the domestic flights in our network and with minimal connection times.”

The new expansion will allow AR to differentiate itself from the competition on flights from the US. AEP only offered flights to neighboring countries due to regulations that prohibited flights with more than 200 seats.

Now that the regulations are lifted, carriers such as LATAM (LA), SKY (H2), and JetSMART (JA) will operate larger aircraft on key routes from AEP.

Featured image: LV-GIF Aerolineas Argentina Airbus A330-200. Photo: Tony Bordelais/Airways