Itapemirim targets Buenos Aires as its first international destination

Within the framework of the International Tourism Expo (ABAV) held in Fortaleza, Brazil, the Itapemirim Group announced that it will be looking to land in Argentina as of 2022 with its start-up airline, ITA-Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos.

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Fabiano Olivera, Commercial Director of Itapemirim, confirmed to Ricardo Sosa, Executive Secretary of Argentina’s National Institute for Tourism Promotion (Inprotur), the intention of ITA to operate in the country. Both parties discussed the possibility of creating a new travel option for Brazilians and Argentines.

«We are reaching new domestic destinations in Brazil, but the new challenge of flying to Buenos Aires makes us extremely happy, and we will be there shortly. This could be our first international route,» said Fabiano Oliveira, Commercial Director of Itapemirim.

The largest international market in the region

According to Argentina’s National Institute of Statistics and Census (INDEC), Brazil positioned itself as the main outbound tourist market with 18.90% of the seven million tourists who entered the country in 2019. Argentina is the second most important destination in the neighboring country, only surpassed by the United States.

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In 2019, nine airlines operated between the two countries – Aerolineas Argentinas, Andes, Azul, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, GOL, LATAM, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines – operating flights from Brazil to Cordoba, Rosario, Mendoza, Bariloche and Buenos Aires. Argentinians had direct connections to Belo Horizonte, Brasilia, Cabo Frio, Curitiba, Florianopolis, Fortaleza, Maceio, Manaus, Natal, Navegantes, Porto Alegre, Porto Seguro, Recife, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador de Bahia, Sao Paulo and Campinas/Viracopos.

During the summer several charter flights were added from different points of Argentina to Brazil, being the 2015/2016 and 2017/2018 seasons some of the highest supply of seats between the two countries.

The pandemic strongly reduced the supply of seats between both destinations, remaining focused on Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, and Florianopolis only. Aerolineas Argentinas, Ethiopian, GOL, LATAM, and Turkish will operate this season, in addition to the return of British Airways and Air Canada.

ITA-Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos

In 2020, the group purchased an air cab company, Asta Linhas Aéreas. With this purchase, it facilitated the certification process and after several evaluations, ANAC Brazil certified the new airline in May 2021, to start operations a month later.

Photo: Itapemirim Group/Divulgação

The company currently has six Airbus A320ceo and expects to have more than twenty aircraft between Airbus A319 and A320.

Its main base is São Paulo/Guarulhos (GRU), with Salvador (SSA), Brasilia (BSB) and Rio de Janeiro (GIG) as secondary bases. From the four airports it operates flights to Porto Seguro (BPS), Curitiba (CWB), Belo Horizonte (CNF), Porto Alegre (POA), Recife (REC), Maceió (MCZ), Natal (NAT), Fortaleza (FOR), Florianópolis (FLN) and, as of December, Foz do Iguaçu (IGU). By 2022 it will start flights to another 20 Brazilian destinations.