Uruguay hasn’t had any sort of a major passenger airline in over a decade, since PLUNA went out of business in 2012. Aviacionline reports how a new airline will be launching in the country this year, with exact details expected to be announced in the coming days.
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Uruguay’s new airline will fly airBaltic A220s
Uruguay is expected to get a new passenger airline, in the form of Sociedad Uruguaya de Aviación (SUA). More details about the airline (including the launch date and first routes) will be unveiled on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, at the International Tourism Fair in Spain.
The airline will be based at Carrasco International Airport (MVD) in Montevideo, Uruguay, and will launch operations with a fleet of leased Airbus A220-300s. Specifically, the airline has reportedly already signed an agreement with Latvia’s airBaltic, which is no stranger to wet leasing operations. The airline plans to fly six aircraft within 18 months, and 10 aircraft within three years.
That means that while SUA will market the flights, they’ll actually be operated by airBaltic aircraft and crews. airBaltic has quite the history of wet leasing, though up until now, these agreements have been primarily with airlines in Europe. SUA will be the first airline based in Latin America to operate the A220.
Uruguay’s government is backing this project, and is excited at the prospect of the economic growth this will provide, and the jobs it will create (presumably mostly in the form of ground staff, since crews will work for airBaltic). However, the funding for this project is largely coming from Saudi Arabia.
The CEO of the airline is Antonio Rama, a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 captain, according to his LinkedIn profile. He’s also the guy behind Uair, an airline in Uruguay that operated from 2003 until 2005, but then went out of business.
My take on Uruguay’s unusual airline startup
As you can tell, as of now there are a lot more questions than answers about what Uruguay’s new airline will look like. For example, I’m curious when the airline will transition from operating wet leased jets, to operating its own jets, and also how long the agreement with airBaltic is for.
airBaltic has done a brilliant job balancing operating its own flights with leasing out many of its jets to other airlines, given the struggles it has faced (like the closure of Russian airspace). Leasing out planes is a good business model, since it at least guarantees you won’t lose money on operating those jets, and minimizes risks.
All that being said, there’s no denying that aviation in Latin America is tricky. The industry is extremely competitive and passengers are largely cost conscious. Currently, Montevideo basically has service from just about all of the major carriers in the region to their respective hubs, in addition to year-round flights to Madrid (MAD) on Air Europa and Iberia, and seasonal flights to Miami (MIA) on American.
I have no clue what kind of yields can be achieved on a year-round basis for markets in which the airline could potentially operate, though I am looking forward to learning more. One thing is for sure — the A220 is an incredible aircraft in terms of passenger comfort, range, and economics, so that leaves the airline well positioned.
Bottom line
A new airline named SUA is launching in Uruguay, and it’ll initially fly wet leased Airbus A220s from airBaltic. There are more questions than answers about the airline, though we should learn a lot more on Tuesday. Airline startups in Latin American often have a hard time, though at least this company is taking a conservative approach, just flying leased aircraft. I look forward to learning more…
What do you make of Uruguay’s new airline?
Looks like AirBaltic will fly for anyone except AirBaltic these days. Their strategy of dry-leasing and wet-leasing aircraft to whoever will have them increasingly reeks of desperation.
You are woefully wrong, BT is profitable and has been on yoy record growth. Insiders are also talking about minor LH Group stake in coming future.
The wet lease are very profitable business for BT, and there is also a reason why they have many aircrafts available for this. Russia was their largest market, it was so big that used to fly multiple flights to Moscow everyday from all their hubs. Off course three years...
You are woefully wrong, BT is profitable and has been on yoy record growth. Insiders are also talking about minor LH Group stake in coming future.
The wet lease are very profitable business for BT, and there is also a reason why they have many aircrafts available for this. Russia was their largest market, it was so big that used to fly multiple flights to Moscow everyday from all their hubs. Off course three years ago something major happened and now you have a huge gap. BT found their use in wet leases.
Oh please. They are so profitable that they had to pay off their debts in 2024 by issuing bonds at a 14,5% (!!!) interest rate and they postponed their IPO indefinitely. Dead man walking unless Russian sanctions are discontinued in 2025.
This is being pursued despite not having any obvious purpose or path to profitability because of the Uruguay government's investment. Every responsibility that a country takes on that would be better served by private investment is for socialist reasons. Expect this to create too many jobs, serve too many destinations with greater frequency than passenger volumes require, and deliver low/no profit and horrendous load factors. There is no scenario where this venture will succeed. There...
This is being pursued despite not having any obvious purpose or path to profitability because of the Uruguay government's investment. Every responsibility that a country takes on that would be better served by private investment is for socialist reasons. Expect this to create too many jobs, serve too many destinations with greater frequency than passenger volumes require, and deliver low/no profit and horrendous load factors. There is no scenario where this venture will succeed. There is no shortage of carriers willing to serve MVD; even the regional low-cost carriers operating in Argentina and Brazil would do this better.
More Airbus butt-kissing. Stop it, Ben. You'll never be as good at it as Tom Boon.
And speaking of regional jets like the A220, it would almost be as cheap to flat-out buy E195-E2s than to lease the misbegotten Canadian hybrid, and it would help out the economy of a neighbor. Why not go in that direction?
Buying and leasing are completely different terms and operational costs. Where are you getting such a ridiculous assumption that it is cheaper to buy E190s? Who is gonna pay for the crew and ground staff training and that’s discounting the huge upfront investment required to buy E190s.
And there is no bootlicking going on, the A220 meets the operational requirement of the region perfectly. Boeing has nothing to offer of sorts so they are...
Buying and leasing are completely different terms and operational costs. Where are you getting such a ridiculous assumption that it is cheaper to buy E190s? Who is gonna pay for the crew and ground staff training and that’s discounting the huge upfront investment required to buy E190s.
And there is no bootlicking going on, the A220 meets the operational requirement of the region perfectly. Boeing has nothing to offer of sorts so they are out of the question and good luck finding someone to wet lease E190-E2s from.
I also find it hilarious you call the A220 misbegotten, when in fact it has been vastly successful. The only people wishing ill on the program and ultimately led to the Canadians quitting was US and Boeing, who instead of fixing their own issues and building aircrafts that the market needed, went on hunting their competitions
Imagine how better off Boeing would be if they bought the A220. That could have been their platform for the 737 replacement, plus the A220 has US supply chains, so BA would have had more synergies.
There is bootlicking going on and the A220 is misbegotten. That is my view, and it's better than yours.
Great for us! We usually fly SCL-AEP on LATAM, then catch Buquebús to Colonia or Montevideo. Cheap, direct flights MVD-SCL will be awesome. I've flown BT out of RIX and VNO but only on the old Bombardier turboprops, which usually landed off terminal and required climbing up and down stairs. Airbus will be better.
I don't understand, since both LATAM and the low-cost airlines Jetsmart and Sky Airlines already fly between Santiago and Montevideo at low prices.
Lucky, I think you forgot a very important angle to this.
All of this is the Saudis’ way of paying Uruguay back for essentially stealing the rights to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
(FIFA ‘forced’ Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay into hosting three of the first World Cup matches in 2030, which also coincides with the first World Cup in Uruguay back in 1930; the rest of the games will be played in Europe and...
Lucky, I think you forgot a very important angle to this.
All of this is the Saudis’ way of paying Uruguay back for essentially stealing the rights to host the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
(FIFA ‘forced’ Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay into hosting three of the first World Cup matches in 2030, which also coincides with the first World Cup in Uruguay back in 1930; the rest of the games will be played in Europe and Morocco.)
Because of FIFA’s rules around bidding, having the South Americans and Europeans host in 2030 would open the way for countries in Asia and Oceania to host the 2034 World Cup. Given that the Oceania federation’s largest country is New Zealand, which cannot meet FIFA’s onerous requirements, it basically means that Saudi Arabia will be the unopposed hosts for the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Hopefully they don't end up becoming another defunct airline in a very complex market and econony, its very difficult to uruguay to keep a well run airline being so dependent on Argentina and Brazil markets. The A220 is the perfect plane for this type of market and routes, but let's be serious, this might noy be realistic long term. I wish uruguayans would have the option of a national carrier o at least a steady...
Hopefully they don't end up becoming another defunct airline in a very complex market and econony, its very difficult to uruguay to keep a well run airline being so dependent on Argentina and Brazil markets. The A220 is the perfect plane for this type of market and routes, but let's be serious, this might noy be realistic long term. I wish uruguayans would have the option of a national carrier o at least a steady company that offers a big network out of MVD and PDP but it seems the market is very small. We'll have to wait and see.
It looks like a very cautious approach. But with only one aircraft, it realistically is not more than once daily to SCL and GRU.
Can the A220 serve the South America from MVD? Drawing a 2500 mile circle it is not enough to serve Colombia or Venezuela, for example.
These basically are long haul destinations which don't have a huge amount of traffic from/to MVD (Avianca and COPA have connecting pax from Europe and N. America). GRU, GIG, AEP, SCL, ASU, CNF, MDZ and maybe another destination or two in Brazil should be pretty easy to operate and more or less break even on.
Airbus says the A220-300 has a range of just under 3800 miles/6115 km, so all the places worth their while flying to will be well and truly doable.
it is doable per Airbus range specs, but in practice it's never been done, Avianca sent A319 ocasionally I believe, but that's a different plane. It would be great if an A220 could fly to northern south america from MVD or PDP but I don't think the market for a third player with no brand recognition is there. It's sad MVD lost AA's year round service. I think the main issue is Uruguay's inability to...
it is doable per Airbus range specs, but in practice it's never been done, Avianca sent A319 ocasionally I believe, but that's a different plane. It would be great if an A220 could fly to northern south america from MVD or PDP but I don't think the market for a third player with no brand recognition is there. It's sad MVD lost AA's year round service. I think the main issue is Uruguay's inability to put their name out there and position itself as a very atractive destination worldwide.
There's no point flying all the way to Bogotá if they don't have connectivity. Avianca and LATAM have their own connections there, Iberia fly straight to MVD, so what's left? SATENA? I just can't see that working, even Lima's probably too far for grabbing a decent yield.
Of course, if Aerolíneas Argentinas ends up collapsing due to Milei washing his hands off it, the prospect of a MVD hub might become very interesting for a lot of people
Wishful thinking from our part I guess, Uruguay has never had a succesful and profitable airline, not even a private one, and the market is way too limited, the fact that foreign carriers have always dominated their market speaks volumes about their economy and their goverment policies when it comes to promoting air travel and tourism. I was there once and I can't see why Uruguay cannot become a hot tourist spot and make a...
Wishful thinking from our part I guess, Uruguay has never had a succesful and profitable airline, not even a private one, and the market is way too limited, the fact that foreign carriers have always dominated their market speaks volumes about their economy and their goverment policies when it comes to promoting air travel and tourism. I was there once and I can't see why Uruguay cannot become a hot tourist spot and make a small network work, but the problem always comes down to the fact the country has a small population, a small economy, and any prospect carrier would struggle with law profitability. The true problem for a country of this size is their stagnated population, the numbers don't seem to grow so the numbers for a national airline won't add up. It's sad but this seems another vanity project. They should be promoting uruguayan destinations heavely to attract tourism rather than planning to go head to head with argentinian and brazilian carriers.
From what I've heard Satena would only work on the international market if they become privatized and that's not gonna happen, I flew them twice to EOH and they don't have the profile to become a major player, not under current circumtances. I've heard Montevideo has become very popular among colombians but AVs flight is more than enough to support that market.
It's sad that Uruguay is not as popular as Argentina or Brazil, same for Paraguay.
I meant connecting at BOG between this new airline and SATENA, which I don't really see as sufficient for the route to be profitable. SATENA is basically a PSO service for smaller places in Colombia and I don't think they're overly bothered about profitability.
I agree with the general gist of your comment, although Uruguay definitely is an important tourist destination for people from Argentina and Brazil. However, I don't think it's ever going to...
I meant connecting at BOG between this new airline and SATENA, which I don't really see as sufficient for the route to be profitable. SATENA is basically a PSO service for smaller places in Colombia and I don't think they're overly bothered about profitability.
I agree with the general gist of your comment, although Uruguay definitely is an important tourist destination for people from Argentina and Brazil. However, I don't think it's ever going to become an attractive proposition for mass tourism as it's just too expensive for that (and, unlike Greece or Spain, it's not well-located for wealthy people who want to go on a short break from Switzerland, Germany, S. Arabia etc).
That trio of nations together in a headline was not on my 2025 OMAAT bingo card.
Hate to post this here, but WA Pedregal shutting 3mo’s July-September for renovations. Heard from staff and checks out when viewing the calendar. Staying a Waldorf of course.
Closed July 15-Sep 30, Reopening October 1.
@ Sel, D. -- I appreciate the heads up, that's great news!