Aviation History
Argentine aviation traces back to pioneer Jorge Newbery, who helped found the Aero Club Argentino in 1908 and Latin America's first military aviation school in 1912, before dying in 1914 attempting the first aerial crossing of the Andes. In the 1920s, Aeropostale's Patagonian mail routes (flown for a time by French writer-aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry) extended aviation into the country's south. The state flag carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas was formed in 1950 from the merger of four earlier airlines and went on to fly early jets, including the de Havilland Comet. Ownership of Aerolíneas Argentinas has shifted repeatedly between state and private control, most recently renationalized in 2008 after a period of private ownership and financial collapse. Since the mid-2010s, regulatory liberalization has allowed low-cost carriers to enter the domestic market for the first time.
The Aero Club Argentino was founded in 1908, becoming a center for early Argentine aviation activity led by figures such as Jorge Newbery.
Argentina established a Military Aviation School in 1912, considered the first of its kind in Latin America.
Aerolíneas Argentinas was created from the merger of four existing Argentine carriers, becoming the country's state flag carrier.
Aerolíneas Argentinas took delivery of de Havilland Comet jets in 1959, among the first airlines outside Europe to operate jet aircraft, and used them to launch service to New York.
Aerolíneas Argentinas operated what is described as the first transantarctic commercial flight using a Boeing 747 in 1980.
The Argentine government sold a majority stake in Aerolíneas Argentinas to an Iberia-led consortium in 1990, beginning a period of private ownership.
Following financial collapse under private ownership, the Argentine state reacquired control of Aerolíneas Argentinas in 2008.
Regulatory changes in the late 2010s allowed low-cost carriers such as Flybondi and JetSmart to begin domestic operations in Argentina for the first time.
Aerolíneas Argentinas · Austral Líneas Aéreas · Flybondi · JetSmart Argentina · LATAM Argentina
General aviation-history sources (Wikipedia, airline company histories); Aerolíneas Argentinas' state ownership, subsidy levels, and the low-cost carrier market are politically sensitive and subject to change with government policy, so figures should be treated as approximate and time-sensitive.
Aviation Firsts
Aeroparque Jorge Newbery — Buenos Aires (1947): Inaugurated 1947 as 'Aeroparque 17 de Octubre'; operations began Jan 1948. Today Argentina's busiest airport for domestic/regional traffic (highest 2025 passenger count). · Wikipedia ↗
Ministro Pistarini International Airport (Ezeiza) — Buenos Aires (Ezeiza) (1949): Cornerstone laid 22 Dec 1945, opened 30 Apr 1949. Today Argentina's main international gateway. · Wikipedia ↗
Aeroparque (1947/48) is slightly older than Ezeiza (1949), and each is 'oldest' at a different thing (close-in domestic hub vs. main international gateway). El Palomar Airport, near Buenos Aires, is commonly cited as the birthplace of Argentine military aviation in the early 1910s and would predate both by decades, but its founding date could not be independently re-verified from a page fetched this session, so it is not reported here as a dated competing claim.
Aerolíneas Argentinas (1949): Founded 14 May 1949 via the merger of four carriers (Aeroposta Argentina, ALFA, FAMA and ZONDA); began operations 7 Dec 1950. Today the current Argentine flag carrier. Exact founding dates for the four merged predecessors are not confirmed by the source consulted (Aeroposta Argentina's article only traces its roots to French Aéropostale mail operations beginning in 1929 and becoming a mixed-economy company in 1947, without a precise founding date) — so no earlier predecessor is reported as a separate, dated claim. · AR ↗ · Wikipedia ↗
Menzies Aviation (United Kingdom), 2025: Following Argentina's 2024–2025 deregulation of ramp/handling services (ending Intercargo's state monopoly), Menzies Aviation's local entity "MNZS S.A." was authorized by the Secretaría de Transporte (Boletín Oficial, 27 June 2025) to provide ramp/airport-assistance services. Menzies' own press release explicitly states: "Menzies Aviation is first international ground handler to secure operator certificate in Argentina," corroborated independently by Air Cargo Week and Airports International. Swissport had a longer-standing Argentine presence (Ezeiza, Aeroparque, etc.) predating this deregulation wave, but no source frames Swissport as literally "first" under the new liberalized regime. · Menzies Aviation ↗