Already the third metropolitan terminal, El Palomar is now the country’s eighth airport in terms of passengers with 54,000 transported last month. This transformation of what was exclusively an Air Force base a couple of years ago is until now exclusively the work of Flybondi, which flies to 11 destinatiions and has lined up two more for next month, but Norwegian is poised to join with two other low-cost airlines (Jet Smart and Chile’s Sky) also interested.

El Palomar virtually doubled its April passenger traffic last month, thus enabling it to overtake Salta and Tucumán (two popular tourist centres) in the national rankings and even finishing ahead of Ezeiza in the last long weekend of May (10,250 passengers as against 7,383). Flybondi thus already accounts for 7% of the local market with Córdoba and Mendoza the most popular destinations.

Flybondi’s four aircraft (with a fifth due by the end of this month) now fly with 82% punctuality, according to the airline’s CEO Julian Cook, a big improvement from the first flights in February when there were numerous delays with only one aeroplane. Since then some 200,000 passengers have flown with the low-cost airline. The two new destinations in coming weeks will be Salta and Santiaigo del Estero with Bahía Blanca the latest addition earlier this month.

A major factor in growth has been the end of the court injunction limiting the airline to three daily flights imposed by a group of Hurlingham residents, who now seek to take their case to the Supreme Court via a per saltum.