MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay’s flag carrier plans to fly Santiago de Chile/Punta Arenas

The operation would be in combination with Sky Airlines “intelligent cargo” expertise.

A third operator could be joining Lan and Sky Airline in cargo and passenger traffic between Santiago de Chile and Punta Arenas, according to an official request presented before Chile’s Civil Aeronautics Agency last July 24, reports La Prensa Austral.

The airline is none less that Uruguay’s flag carrier Pluna, based on the recent open skies agreement with Chile and would be the first time Pluna flies between two non Uruguayan destinations.

Eugenio Cox, Pluna’s general manager in Santiago revealed the company plans to begin with cargo and later on move to the passenger business, but always night flights.

“The business plan is ready, the decision has been taken, but we have no starting date”, admitted Cox.

Last May Pluna signed an agreement with Sky Cargo (Sky airlines freight branch) to take advantage of their experience in the so called “intelligent cargo” sector which allowed the Chilean company in three years to boost its domestic market share to 40%, as well as the company’s logistic and commercial infrastructure.

“JAC has told us informally that there’s no problem in operating in Chile’s domestic air market because this is contemplated in the open skies agreement with Uruguay”, said Cox who added that any moment “we expect to receive the formal authorization.

The following step is the technical and operational certification before the Civil Aviation General Direction, DGCA. A delegation from Montevideo is already working on procedures and it is estimated “it could take some two months” to comply with all requirements.

This would be the first time a foreign airline operates in Chile’s domestic market.

“Our intention is to begin with Punta Arenas; we’re going to assess the business, see how it works out”, said Cox.

The idea is to operate from Santiago taking advantage of the aircraft which arrives from Montevideo every night at 20:00 hours and remains overnight in the Chilean capital before returning to Uruguay the following morning.

“We are planning for a night flight to Punta Arenas, in combination with Sky Cargo, returning with passengers. This will help with costs since it’s cheaper to have the aircraft operating in the air than staying over night in land”, pointed out Cox.

The operation will be done with the so called “seat containers” which instead of people occupy space with cargo containers, and “not to return empty we will bring back passengers from Punta Arenas”.

“We think the operation will be successful and hopefully will be flying passengers by the end of the year”.

Uruguay’s flag carrier is also planning to increase its 11 weekly flights between Montevideo and Santiago to two daily, 14 a week.

Pluna has also requested permits to fly between Asunción, Paraguay and Santiago de Chile, which would also be the first time the airline links two non Uruguayan cities from different countries