Aerolíneas Argentinas sells seats to Brazilians again
On 24 September 2025, Aerolíneas Argentinas announced a significant expansion of its summer schedule: two new seasonal routes connecting Brazilian cities directly to Punta del Este, Uruguay, using fifth freedom traffic rights . It is the first time the Argentine flag carrier has exercised this right since 2012, when it last used it on its Buenos Aires–Auckland–Sydney service.
The announcement comes as Sky, GOL and LATAM have also been using fifth freedom rights with Argentine passengers in recent months, a broader regional trend toward making use of intermediate-stop commercial rights that have long existed in bilateral aviation agreements but gone largely unused by South American carriers.
Source: Sir Chandler (Spanish), citing the official Aerolíneas Argentinas press release.
What is the fifth freedom of the air?
The freedoms of the air are a set of commercial aviation rights established in the 1944 Chicago Convention. The fifth freedom allows an airline to carry passengers between two foreign countries, as long as the flight originates or terminates in the airline's home country.
In Aerolíneas Argentinas' case for these routes:
- Home country: Argentina (Buenos Aires)
- First foreign country: Brazil (GRU – São Paulo, or POA – Porto Alegre)
- Second foreign country: Uruguay (PDP – Punta del Este)
The fifth freedom segment is the portion between the two foreign stops, Brazil to Punta del Este, and it can be sold commercially to Brazilian or Uruguayan passengers who are not travelling to or from Argentina at all.
For a broader look at fifth-freedom routes operated globally by carriers like Emirates, Singapore Airlines and Qantas, see our complete fifth-freedom flight routes guide .
A brief history of Aerolíneas and the fifth freedom
This is not the first time Aerolíneas Argentinas has used fifth freedom rights. Historically, its long-haul Boeing 747-200 services to Europe made commercial stopovers in Rio de Janeiro, where Brazilian passengers could purchase seats on the Rio–Europe leg. More recently, the last documented use was in 2012 on the Buenos Aires–Auckland–Sydney route, where the Auckland–Sydney segment was sold to passengers not originating in Argentina.
The practice is common among many carriers operating through Argentina. KLM, Air Canada, Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Swiss and British Airways all currently use fifth freedom rights when flying through Argentina, selling seats to passengers travelling to Brazil or Chile on their beyond-Argentina sectors. What's notable about the September 2025 announcement is that Aerolíneas is now doing the same in reverse, as the home carrier exercising the right abroad.
The two new fifth freedom routes
Route 1: São Paulo (GRU) → Punta del Este (PDP)
Full route: Buenos Aires → São Paulo (GRU) → Punta del Este (PDP)
Start date: 25 December 2025
Frequency: 2x weekly, departing GRU on Thursdays and Fridays; returning from PDP on Sundays and Mondays
End date: 31 January 2026
São Paulo is Brazil's largest city and a major source of tourists heading to Uruguay's summer coast. Brazilians travelling to Punta del Este typically face a multistep journey via Buenos Aires or via Montevideo. This fifth freedom route offers a direct connection from Brazil's main hub to the resort city, making it significantly more convenient for the Brazilian leisure market.
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ Track this route in the app
Route 2: Porto Alegre (POA) → Punta del Este (PDP)
Full route: Buenos Aires → Porto Alegre (POA) → Punta del Este (PDP)
Start date: 26 December 2025
Frequency: 2x weekly, departing POA on Fridays and Saturdays; returning from PDP on Saturdays and Sundays
End date: 31 January 2026
Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, is geographically close to Uruguay and has historically strong cultural ties to the region. A direct connection to Punta del Este serves a market that currently has few direct international options and taps into the significant leisure travel demand from southern Brazil to the Uruguayan coast.
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ Track this route in the app
The full summer schedule expansion
The fifth freedom routes are part of a broader Aerolíneas Argentinas summer 2025–26 schedule expansion to Uruguay:
Buenos Aires → Punta del Este (PDP)
Frequency: 28 weekly (5 more than the previous summer)
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ Track this route in the app
Buenos Aires → Montevideo (MVD)
Frequency: 16 weekly (2 more than the previous summer)
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ Track this route in the app
Córdoba (COR) → Punta del Este (PDP)
Frequency: 2x weekly on Thursdays and Saturdays, starting 1 January
📥 Download route data (CSV) | 🗺️ Track this route in the app
According to Aerolíneas Argentinas president Fabián Lombardo: "This initiative reinforces the idea that our company must seek maximum profitability across our whole network, taking advantage of the opportunities that open up during the summer season to improve our offer and range of destinations."
Why this matters
- Revenue in hard currency: Brazilian reais and Uruguayan pesos represent foreign currency income, reducing the airline's exposure to Argentina's peso volatility.
- Better load factors: Seasonal leisure routes are expensive to launch. Adding a commercially sold intermediate fifth freedom segment improves the economics of an otherwise one-direction demand pattern.
- Regional trend: Aerolíneas is following a pattern already set by Sky (selling seats to Salvador de Bahía), GOL (selling seats to Punta del Este) and LATAM (selling the Santiago-origin Miami sector to Argentine passengers). Fifth freedom use in South America is becoming more common, not less.
- Tourism competitiveness: Punta del Este's summer season (December–February) draws a large share of its visitors from Brazil. A direct flight from São Paulo or Porto Alegre, rather than a connection via Buenos Aires, makes the destination significantly more accessible.
View all routes on one map
📥 Download all routes data (CSV) | 🗺️ View all routes on the interactive map
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