BUENOS AIRES—Latin American airlines continue to struggle with returning to profitability since the pandemic started—with the exception of Copa Airlines, which was the only profitable airline in the region in 2022.
While Copa didn’t make it into Jonathan Berger’s annual Latin American MRO Top 10 List this year, a few others did. Berger, Alton Aviation Consultancy managing director, delivered his call-out list at Aviation Week’s MRO Latin America on Feb. 22.
Here’s his Top 10 list, in descending order:
#10: Azul was the world’s top performing airline in 2022 in terms of on-time performance (88.93%).
#9: The Mexican military plans to start a new airline and paid $42 million for the Nueva Mexicana brand.
#8: United Airlines takes over TAP M&E’s facility in Rio de Janeiro.
#7: The three-way bidding war between LATAM, Avianca and JetSMART for Viva Columbia.
#6: "Safety continues to be the number-one priority," said Berger. He cited the LATAM Airlines Peru incident on Nov. 18, 2022 when one of the airline’s A320neos collided with an aircraft rescue and firefighting truck exercise. No one on the aircraft died although two firefighters did. https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/safety-ops-regulation/latam-accident-probe-eyes-firefighting-drills-parameters
#5: Cargo operations are banned from Mexico City International Airport and relegated to Felipe Angeles International Airport.
#4: Latin American MRO leaders go global, as evidence by two recent moves: Jose Luis Quiros, former Avianca senior vice president of maintenance and engineering, becomes Qatar’s chief technical officer, and Valter Fernandes, former Portugalia Airlines CEO and TAP M&E Brazil executive vice president, becomes Emirates’ senior vice president of maintenance.
#3: The fair election and transfer of power in Brazil. Brazilian airlines are optimistic for growth.
#2: Abra Group forms to provide a platform for its airlines--Avianca, Gol and Viva—to gain efficiencies and economies of scale. Abra is led by Roberto Kriete, who also is the founder and chairman of MRO Holdings.
#1: Argentina wins the World Cup.
Here is is list from 2019.
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