With winter holidays starting, Bariloche has more air traffic than ever with no less than 35 flights landing in Teniente Luis Candelaria International Airport last Saturday from six different airlines, the Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 website reports
Speaking on Radio Mitre, Tourism Minister Gustavo Santos attributed this explosion of flights to not only the start of winter holidays but also the deregulation policies of the Mauricio Macri administration and “a more competitive dollar.” He quoted market forecasts as estimating five million tourists for this month and inland traffic of over 14 million Argentines for the entire season, thus breaking the records set last year for domestic and international tourism. In particular a peak number of Brazilian tourists for ski centres like Bariloche is expected.

Of these 35 flights, 13 are Aerolineas Argentinas/Austral, nine Latam Argentina, six Andes, four Flybondi, one Azul (coming from Sao Paulo) one Latam Brasil and one Gol (both also from Sao Paulo).
Within Argentina, 20 arrived from Aeroparque, three from El Palomar (all Flybondi), two from Córdoba, two from Ezeiza, and one each from Mendoza, Santa Fe, Rosario, Tucumán and Jujuy. Around noon there were no less than six flights (two Aerolineas Argentinas, two Andes and one each from Latam Argentina and Flybondi) in the hour between 11.40 and 12.45. For July Aerolineas Argentinas will be offering 81 flights (56 from Aeroparque) Latam 49 (40 from Aeroparque) and Flybondi 24 (16 from El Palomar) while there will be seven Andes flights out of Aeroparque.

To accompany this aviation boom and greater connectivty with more flight frequencies, the ski centres of Bariloche have agreed to limit price increases in order to make the revalued dollar more attractive for local and foreign tourists..Bariloche is now looking forward to a possibly record-breaking winter season with around half a million arrivals between July and September. Approximately half of these will be visiting the city for the first time.