MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Low cost airline JetSmart to land in Montevideo next year

JetSmart sells tickets by segment

Chilean budget carrier JetSmart has announced it will start serving Uruguay as of January 18 with tickets available for as low as US $ 20. The airline plans to offer three weekly flights between the capital cities of Chile and Uruguay with Airbus 320 aircraft which have a capacity of 186 seats.

 “We have announced the new route, Santiago, Chile and Montevideo,” said the company's commercial manager, Darío Ratinoff during a press conference at Montevideo's Carrasco International Airport.

JetSmart will fly Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays between Santiago and Montevideo in another milestone of the company's regional expansion plan.

The airline was founded five years ago in Chile. “We are very happy to be able to launch this new route and that these difficult moments that we experienced last year are ending a little bit and to think about a new reactivation”, Ratinoff explained.

Tickets will sell starting at US $ 20 per segment plus taxes. “We sell by segment,” said Ratinoff, who pointed out this modality allowed passengers to ”set the rate“ according to each one's needs

Diego Arrosa, CEO of Corporación América -which manages the International Airport-, pointed out that talks regarding JetSmart's arrival in Uruguayy had been going on for over four years. He also hoped operations would grow in the future.

”Uruguay has a huge opportunity to become a 'hub'. More people are going to work from here to the world, more people are going to settle here. We have a huge opportunity, the Government has done a great job in the pandemic. We have a great country image,” said Arrosa.

Uruguay's Tourism Minister Tabaré Viera pointed out that “air connectivity is the other leg for the reactivation of the country” together with the reopening of borders and the economic incentives offered to improve competitiveness.

Tourism “has lived through difficult hours but, happily, we see a light of hope, of departure. We are a few hours from the opening of borders so dreamed of, so important for tourism,“ he added.

Viera also highlighted that the air link between Chile and Uruguay will be ”very important“, considering that the Chilean market has grown in recent years and that now it is up to his portfolio to ”deepen the introduction into that sister country.”

Uruguay will open its borders on November 1 to all foreigners vaccinated against COVID-19, who have completed their treatment 14 days before arriving, and produce a negative PCR test from no more than 72 hours prior to the journey.