International flights are restored at Rosario airport

The Argentine government, through Administrative Decision 1144/2021 published this Saturday, November 20 in the Official Bulletin, authorized the opening of Rosario’s «Islas Malvinas» International Airport as a new international secure corridor for the entry of passengers.

As a result, the third most important international airport outside Buenos Aires will be able to receive international flights, joining those of Córdoba, Mendoza, Neuquén, Puerto Iguazú, Salta, San Martin de los Andes, Tucumán and Ushuaia.

Interestingly, Rosario was one of the most important airports that did not have such authorization, considering how key this segment was for the Islas Malvinas before the pandemic. As a result, the terminal has one of the worst recovery rates compared to other airports in Argentina.

Before the pandemic, Rosario had a daily flight to Lima (LIM), Peru, with LATAM; a daily flight to Rio de Janeiro (GIG), Brazil, with GOL; a daily flight to Panama (PTY) with Copa Airlines and a weekly flight to Recife (REC), Brazil, with Azul. In addition, in high season Aerolíneas Argentinas offered flights to Punta del Este (PDP), Florianópolis (FLN) and Rio de Janeiro (GIG). At the time of writing, the companies have not announced their return to the Rosario terminal. 

At its peak Rosario also had LATAM flights to São Paulo/Guarulhos (GRU) and Santiago de Chile (SCL); SKY to Santiago de Chile (SCL); GOL to Salvador (SSA) and Porto Seguro (BPS) and Azul to Porto Alegre (POA), which were leaving after the devaluation of the Argentine peso in 2018 and its impact on outbound tourism, the main target of those operations.

In 2019 it reached to move 758,224 passengers, of which 382,855 did so on domestic flights and 375,369 on international flights. In 2018, Rosario handled 865,573 passengers, a record year in its history.