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The South American Commercial Market Expands
Perhaps the commercial market that has grown the most is the South American market, with many new airlines entering the market and others expanding, or replacing their fleet, while also beginning service to newer destinations, among the many important things that have happened recently in the South American market we can see the merger between LAN Airlines and TAM Airlines, the consolidation of the Avianca/Taca group as one of the strongest and most important of the region, the re-estructuring of TAME Airlines of Ecuador, which if, continues growing this way, would become, the largest airline in Ecuador.
At first we can find one of the worlds oldest airlines still in operation, currently the second oldest in operation, Avianca, the airline of Colombia, this airline is part of the Avianca/Taca Group, an airline group made up by Avianca and Taca, these airline group has hubs at Eldorado International Airport in Bogota, at Sao Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport in Brazil, in San Jose's Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica and in San Salvador's Airport, well, this airline group has one of the youngest and most modern fleets in the Americas, mostly made up of Airbus Aircraft, at the Paris Air Show, these airline group expanded their fleet by ordering aircraft from the A320 Family, mostly the NEO (New Engine Option).
Even though these two airlines are part of the same group and are owned by the same people, they continue to operate separately.
Aerolineas Argentinas has also been one of the leading airlines of the Region, this airline, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has hubs at Buenos Aires-Ezeiza and Buenos Aires-Aeroparque and is planning on opening another hub in Argentina, while taking deliveries of their recently aquired Boeing 737-700s which would replace their older Boeing 737-500s, this airline would also join SkyTeam if things follow as projected, this would expand SkyTeam's reach in South America, while also re-estructuring Austral, their subsidiary.
Aerolinea Argentinas recently renewed their livery, as seen here on their Boeing 737-700.
Airline mergers are very common around the world, well in South America too, as shows the TAM Airlines- LAN Airlines merger, although they still each retain their own alliances (Star Alliance and Oneworld) and their same liveries, and it will possibly continue this way, this two airlines merged thinking this would help make operations cheaper and would help them grow in market share and south american market dominance, by joining both their forces, they now have most of the South American market, while TAM was and is still the biggest and largest airline in South America and LAN Airlines is perhaps the one with most subsidiaries flying with the LAN Airlines name, this would create a leading airline in the region, with the service and safety each offer, merging also their own subsidiaries each one, TAM with Pantanal and TAM Airlines Mercosur, and LAN with LAN Chile, LAN Ecuador, LAN Argentina and LAN Peru, and Aires (the recently aquired Colombian carrier, which would probably soon become LAN Colombia). Forming the LATAM Airlines group.
Both this airlines together are forming the regions leading group.
At last, we could talk about a very important airline in both the central american and south american region, one of the airlines performing the best and making the most of its operations, we can see Copa Airlines along with its subsidiary Copa Airlines Colombia (formerly Aerorepublica) , this airline has its main hub at Panama City's Tocumen International Airport, located at an strategic location, with access to many regions, and without and exploited market, this airline makes up a monopoly at Panama City's Tocumen Airport, forming its famous Hub of the Americas, with flights to South America, The Caribbean & Central America and North America, while codesharing on flights to Europe, this airline has a great future and great growth opportunities, having inagurated recent service to Toronto, Belo Horizonte, Nassau and increasing frequencies, this airline re-states its leading position in Central & South America along with its great service.
The hub of the americas as seen here at Panama City.\
