On April 17, the airlines began moving from Terminal A and C to the new departures terminal at Ezeiza International Airport (EZE), inaugurated on April 14.
The building has a covered area of 50 thousand square meters and is developed on three levels, with a 230-meter frontage. It will consolidate all departures, increasing by 25% the number of check-in counters, totaling 165 counters with service and 128 automatic stations distributed in five islands perpendicular to the front, following the trend observed in new terminals around the world.
This follows the last plan that had been announced in 2018 and progressed until an unfortunate construction site accident took place in October 2019 in which a worker died. The arrival of the pandemic forced to rethink the project again.
See also: [Photo gallery] Ezeiza airport unveils its new terminal
The first airlines at the new departures terminal
Aerolíneas Argentinas will be the first airline to operate in the new terminal. The first flight it will serve will be to Cancun (CUN), Mexico, at 21:55, using check-in stations 176-205.
The state-owned airline will use the new terminal for both domestic and international flights, thus discontinuing the use of Terminal C for good.
On April 18, Delta Air Lines and ITA Airways will be the second airline to move out of Terminal C. They will be followed by Aeromexico, Air France, American Airlines, KLM and LEVEL on April 19.
Finally, Copa Airlines will begin using the new terminal on April 22.
For the time being, the other airlines will remain in Terminal A, while Flybondi and JetSMART will move from Terminal C to Terminal A.
It is expected that by the end of June, all airlines will move, leaving only Terminal A for arrivals.
The check-in stations provided by each airline in the new terminal will be:
- As of April 17:
- Aerolíneas Argentinas: 176-205. Sector D.
- From April 18:
- Delta Air Lines: 154-160. Sector C.
- ITA Airways: 139-145. Sector B.
- From April 19:
- Aeromexico: 169-175. Sector C.
- Air France: 146-153. Sector C.
- American Airlines: 131-145. Sector B.
- KLM: 146-153. Sector C.
- LEVEL: 169-175. Sector C.
- From April 22:
- Copa Airlines: 246-250. Sector F.
Ezeiza Airport numbers
In 2022 Ezeiza International Airport mobilized 6.62 million passengers, 113% more than in 2021, but still 48% lower than in 2019, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, something to be expected considering that the international market has a slower recovery rate than the domestic market, and this represents barely 25% of Ezeiza’s total traffic.
In addition, it should be taken into account that most of the flights to neighboring countries were transferred to Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, when until 2020 only flights to Uruguay (in addition to cabotage) could be operated there.