Air traffic increased by 8% in August and over 17 million passengers have taken flights in 2019
The Transportation and Telecommunications Minister highlighted the boom in domestic flights, which reveal a 2-digit growth rate for 16 consecutive months.
Domestic and international flights transported over two million passengers in August, representing an 8% increase in comparison to the same month last year, according to figures released by the Civil Aeronautics Board, which reports to the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications.
The figures for the year to date show that 17.7 million people have taken flights, resulting in cumulative growth of 10.9% compared to the same period in 2018, driven mainly by domestic flights.
To this end, Transportation and Telecommunications Minister Gloria Hutt indicated that, “as seen in previous months, domestic traffic has experienced the biggest growth. The figures for August were 13% higher than those for August 2018 and we have now seen 16 consecutive months of double-digit growth in domestic flights. International air traffic has also registered an increase during the last month, but at a more moderate rate of 2.4%.”
Minister Hutt added that, “these figures attest to the sustained development of the industry, which is enabling more and more people to have the option of flying. Likewise, we are seeing the consolidation of interregional routes, which facilitates the mobility of people within Chile without having to stopover in Santiago.”
Meanwhile, the acting secretary-general of the Civil Aeronautics Board (Junta de Aeronáutica Civil, JAC), David Dueñas, said that the indicators reveal “the success of Chile’s commercial aviation policy of open skies, which has allowed new operators to enter, competition to increase and passengers to get a better deal.”
In the last month, the main international destinations were Lima, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Río de Janeiro. Meanwhile, the national ones were Calama, Antofagasta, Concepción, Iquique and Puerto Montt.