Arriving from San Bernadino to Ezeiza Airport on April 14th at 04:00 am, a new Airbus A330-200 was officially incorporated into the fleet of Aerolíneas Argentinas. The latest introduction marks the ninth aircraft type within the airline's growing widebody fleet.

Surprisingly, Aerolíneas Argentina had not added any newcomers to its fleet since June 2018, when the Boeing 737 MAX registered as LV-HKW was delivered. This was mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and internal company changes - such as the Austral merger, which made adding new aircraft non-feasible.

Slightly delayed delivery

With situations within the airline and worldwide improving, the time seems perfect for Aerolíneas Argentina to continue with the incorporation of aircraft to aid its long-term recovery.

Previously from TAP Air Portugal, the Airbus A330-200 is now registered as LV-KAN and configured with 269 seats, with 25 in Business Class and 244 in Economy Class.

Having flown its first flight back in November 2007, the newcomer to the Aerolíneas Argentina's fleet is slightly over 14 years old and was housed in San Bernadino for several months.

At 14.3 years of age, the newcomer has accumulated 60,720 flight hours in 7,297 cycles. Photo: Getty Images

The aircraft was initially scheduled for delivery to the Argentine carrier in late 2021. However, the airline's technical employees detected some problems with the aircraft engines. Thus, the delivery was delayed till now as repairs were in progress.

Widening the future

As Argentina's biggest airline, Aerolíneas Argentinas currently has 77 aircraft in its fleet, the majority of which are the Boeing 737-800 and a small handful of the Boeing 737-700 and the Boeing 737 MAX.

Finishing up the narrowbody fleet would be the 13 Embraer E190s, which will be eventually replaced by the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.

Still, Aerolíneas Argentinas lacked a greater widebody to replace its aged and inactive Airbus A340s. And thus, the airline began taking in younger Airbus A330-200s to renew its widebody, long-haul fleet.

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There are now nine in the fleet, including the newcomer LV-KAN, with one being parked while the others are in active service. The airline is expecting delivery of a tenth aircraft in the meantime, under the registration LV-KAO.

Aerolíneas Argentinas A330
The pending newcomer registered as LV-KAO is approximately 14.5 years old but has no scheduled delivery date yet. Photo: Airbus

Flying the long-haul

Besides finishing up its fleet's renewal this year, Aerolíneas Argentinas is also looking to restore its route network. Domestically, the airline is doing relatively well.

On the other hand, the airline has been focusing intensely on flights to Brazil using the Boeing 737-800s and the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Nonetheless, Aerolíneas Argentinas is still looking to restore more of its international long-haul routes for the Airbus A330s to fly on.

The aircraft serves just seven long-haul routes from Buenos Aires, namely Cancun, El Calafate, Iguazu, Madrid, Miami, New York, and Punta Cana. Next up on the long-haul list seems to include Rome in June as the airline plans for thrice-weekly flight services.

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Inching the numbers up

With a more extensive fleet, it appears that Aerolíneas Argentinas is on a positive climb rate towards inching for more significant passenger numbers as it continues to resume more routes to give in to pent-up demand.

And with more route restorations come more significant passenger numbers in the time to come, aiding the airline in its effort for a full recovery this year.

Source: Aviacionline.com