To better compete with Norwegian, Andes and Flybondi, all of which operate their 738s with a high density, 189-seat configuration, AR will reconfigure its 31 737-800s from a 170 seat C/Y configuration to an all economy, 186-189-seat configuration. This will result in 500 seats added to the fleet, the equivalent of 3 738s. For regional flights to Brazil, Chile, Uruguay, Peru and Bolivia, the airline will go the European airlines' route, and will block the middle seat on the first few rows of the aircraft, and continue to offer "Economy Plus" service. - same as LATAM already does.

According to AR, only 30% of domestic passengers in Argentina currently pay for business class, with the rest being FFs, full coach fare or operational upgrades. The conversion will be done in house with 20 aircraft done this year, beginning in June and the remaining 11 in 2019, at a cost of US$15MM. CASM will go down by 10% with operational savings of US$75MM by 2020.

The E190 fleet will not be modified as it will be on its way out soon; the MAX 8 will also continue to have a dedicated business class cabin; next month they begin long haul flying from Argentina to PUJ.

https://www.lanacion.com.ar/2128491-aer ... regionales

This change will affect only the planes that fly on argentinian routes. Personally I see this a smart move, that will allow AR to offer lower fares and keeping it's lead on the argentinian market. AR is struggling in many directions to reduce it's deficit, that many years ago reached figures very disturbing (Around 600M u$D on a year on the worst moments since it's nationalization). Another thing to keep in mind, it's the fact that AR flies per leg, not more than 2.5 hours (with some exceptions of course), making the need of business seats a no sense.
Edit: add data.

Amazing how far behind the market Aerolineas Argentinas is with its decisions...

Byron1976 wrote:

This change will affect only the planes that fly on argentinian routes. Personally I see this a smart move, that will allow AR to offer lower fares and keeping it's lead on the argentinian market. AR is struggling in many directions to reduce it's deficit, that many years ago reached figures very disturbing (Around 600M u$D on a year on the worst moments since it's nationalization). Another thing to keep in mind, it's the fact that AR flies per leg, not more than 2.5 hours (with some exceptions of course), making the need of business seats a no sense.
Edit: add data.

Here are the treasury's transfers to Grupo Aerolineas, since 2009 to present. Interestingly enough, during today's presentation, Mr Guillermo Dietrich said the airline will be subsidy free in 2019, a year before previously thought, (2020). https://twitter.com/SenadoArgentina/sta ... 1845698562

dcajet wrote:

Byron1976 wrote:

This change will affect only the planes that fly on argentinian routes. Personally I see this a smart move, that will allow AR to offer lower fares and keeping it's lead on the argentinian market. AR is struggling in many directions to reduce it's deficit, that many years ago reached figures very disturbing (Around 600M u$D on a year on the worst moments since it's nationalization). Another thing to keep in mind, it's the fact that AR flies per leg, not more than 2.5 hours (with some exceptions of course), making the need of business seats a no sense.
Edit: add data.

Here are the treasury's transfers to Grupo Aerolineas, since 2009 to present. Interestingly enough, during today's presentation, Mr Guillermo Dietrich said the airline will be subsidy free in 2019, a year before previously thought, (2020). https://twitter.com/SenadoArgentina/sta ... 1845698562

Well... I forgot that the figures where very worse than what I said.
AR is reducting its deficit at a pace of 50% per year. Nothing bad taking in count that AR is in a great moment beating records on pax transported per month.

Not only they were bad, they are a scandal. It is morally, economically and otherwise almost impossible to justify these subsidies in any situation, let alone drama-prone Argentina. (Bad) politics over pragmatism.

I’m sort of happy to see them struggling. They were so overprotected under the Kirchner’s. Many of us Argentines had to deal with sh*tty customer service and operations as a norm. LATAM Argentina has changed that up, and so will the new carriers. It’s about time they realize how unwanted they are in the modern day market.

Tailwinds13 wrote:

I’m sort of happy to see them struggling. They were so overprotected under the Kirchner’s. Many of us Argentines had to deal with sh*tty customer service and operations as a norm. LATAM Argentina has changed that up, and so will the new carriers. It’s about time they realize how unwanted they are in the modern day market.

Errr... what rock have you been under? You seem to be 4-5 years behind. While I would not call AR a financially thriving airline, they are certainly not struggling. In fact they have regained the market leadership and are streets ahead of LATAM, domestically: better, more modern fleet, better service, more punctual and growing as opposed to LATAM, which is shrinking. All while being way less of a burden to the taxpayer. LATAM Argentina has been somewhat of a joke lately: cancellations, delays, old fleet, ops plagued with irregularities.

I am afraid your wishes to see AR/AU fade into the background are not going to be fulfilled.

I see, LV-CTB/CTC does not feature Sky Interior, so I think it will be retired, all others that have Sky Interior are to be retrofitted with BSI.

Doesn't really surprise me. South America seems to be getting closer and closer to Europe-level service.
AV is the last one to go now... wonder how long they'll hold on to true J on short domestic routes like BOG-MDE, LIM-CUZ, and GYE-UIO.
O6 no longer has C (did they ever?) on domestic aircraft.

It'd be nice to see a true J seat on longer routes like GRU-BOG/SCL/LIM though.

ahj2000 wrote:

Doesn't really surprise me. South America seems to be getting closer and closer to Europe-level service.
AV is the last one to go now... wonder how long they'll hold on to true J on short domestic routes like BOG-MDE, LIM-CUZ, and GYE-UIO.
O6 no longer has C (did they ever?) on domestic aircraft.

It'd be nice to see a true J seat on longer routes like GRU-BOG/SCL/LIM though.

O6 never had C class.
And we can already count with true J services by both LA and AV/O6 on the mentioned routes.

winGl3t wrote:

ahj2000 wrote:

Doesn't really surprise me. South America seems to be getting closer and closer to Europe-level service.
AV is the last one to go now... wonder how long they'll hold on to true J on short domestic routes like BOG-MDE, LIM-CUZ, and GYE-UIO.
O6 no longer has C (did they ever?) on domestic aircraft.

It'd be nice to see a true J seat on longer routes like GRU-BOG/SCL/LIM though.

O6 never had C class.
And we can already count with true J services by both LA and AV/O6 on the mentioned routes.

My point was LA has some flights on these routes on 320 and some on 767/787/777. Seems bizarre and uncompetitive to have lie flats and Eurobusiness.

ahj2000 wrote:

winGl3t wrote:

ahj2000 wrote:

Doesn't really surprise me. South America seems to be getting closer and closer to Europe-level service.
AV is the last one to go now... wonder how long they'll hold on to true J on short domestic routes like BOG-MDE, LIM-CUZ, and GYE-UIO.
O6 no longer has C (did they ever?) on domestic aircraft.

It'd be nice to see a true J seat on longer routes like GRU-BOG/SCL/LIM though.

O6 never had C class.
And we can already count with true J services by both LA and AV/O6 on the mentioned routes.

My point was LA has some flights on these routes on 320 and some on 767/787/777. Seems bizarre and uncompetitive to have lie flats and Eurobusiness.

Specifically to LA, on the following routes, EZE-SCL, GRU-SCL and LIM-SCL the 320/21 and the 767/777/787 are deployed. While the seating is day and night between wide and narrow bodies, the service on board in terms of catering is the same for both cabins.