Argentina clears LATAM to operate unrestricted domestic flights as Milei advances liberalisation

Argentina's Transport Secretariat has authorised Chile's LATAM Airlines to operate domestic (cabotage) services across Argentina with aircraft of its choosing, granting the carrier full access to the market and making it a direct competitor to incumbent operators. The move reflects President Javier Milei's ongoing aviation liberalisation agenda.

Discovered 2025-12-27T01:49:03.611813-08:00 | 2025-12-27T01:49:03.611813-08:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

The decision opens Argentina's domestic market to a major foreign group at scale, a material competitive shift that intersects with the government's push to privatise and reshape national carriers (see the vote that put a potential sale of Aerolíneas Argentinas within reach: https://hype.aero/?story=6ce07b6d-7277-45b8-b2fb-2f19ea5109cc).
It strengthens LATAM's commercial momentum and fleet deployment options: the authorisation arrives after the group's 24 Embraer E195‑E2 order and recent revenue-led capacity growth, giving LATAM aircraft and financial metrics to support rapid domestic expansion (see the E195‑E2 order: https://hype.aero/?story=722018b1-0635-4bb8-8a8f-a3cf2d9d3540 and Q3 results: https://hype.aero/?story=f2f2af8b-d295-4414-b891-6146009c630a).
The move is part of broader recent foreign‑carrier access changes in Argentina, joining other authorisations such as China Eastern's new Shanghai–Auckland–Buenos Aires service, and could reshape route planning, slot allocation and competitive dynamics across key domestic city pairs: https://hype.aero/?story=55700d97-a52a-45fb-91aa-857bf7021ae4

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