ANALYSIS: Airports in South America - The Biggest and Fastest Growing Gateways

Richard Maslen September 07, 2015

Ahead of this year's World Routes forum, Routesonline is providing another look at our series of articles on the leading airlines and airports and most used aircraft types across regions of the world last year. Here we look closely at the airports of South America and highlight the region's top performers.

The data is all supplied by OAG Aviation using its OAG Schedules Analyser tool.

Scheduled Air Capacity From South America (2005 - 2014)

Our analysis of published schedules for the past ten years shows that air capacity within and from South America has risen from 140,013,680 available seats in 2005 to 259,462,050 available seats in 2014. This represents a growth of 85.3 per cent across the period, an average annual increase of 9.5 per cent. In the past year capacity increased 2.3 per cent.

Top Ten Airports in the South American Market (2014)

Brazilian airports dominate air travel within and from South America holding six of the top ten positions. Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport leads the way with a 9.5 per cent share of available capacity within and from South America in 2014, with a 6.6 per cent growth in network capacity in the region versus 2013.

Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport is the second largest facility in the region with a 6.3 per cent capacity share, while Lima’s Jorge Chávez International Airport, Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport and Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires complete the list of non-Brazilian airports in the top ten.

Fastest Growing Airports in the South American Market (2010-2014)

Looking at capacity data in the region across a five year period, it is Viracopos/Campinas International Airport that has grown by the biggest margin with capacity up 126.4 per cent from 2010, as it has developed its passenger operations alongside its long-standing cargo operations. Notable growth during this timescale was also recorded by Lima's Jorge Chávez International Airport (up 51.2 per cent) and Santiago's Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (up 46.6 per cent).

Data comparison between 2013 and 2014 shows that Bogota's El Dorado International Airport has seen the largest year-on-year growth among the top 20 airports in this region with capacity rising 11.0 per cent over the 12 month period. The only other airport to show double-digit capacity growth in the region was Aeroparque Jorge Newbery in Buenos Aires (up 10.5 per cent). The schedules highlight that nine of the top 20 airports in South America reported capacity declines between 2013 and 2014, the largest being recorded by Quito's Mariscal Sucre International Airport (down 9.1 per cent) following rapid growth in 2012 and 2013.

Scheduled South American Capacity by Aircraft Type

The chart below shows which aircraft types were most prevalent in the South American market during 2014. The schedule data shows the Airbus A320 (320) is the most widely used aircraft type in this market with a 28.5 per cent share of available seats with overall network capacity up 3.3 per cent between 2013 and 2014 from 71.61 million seats to 73.94 million seats.

The second most utilised aircraft type in this market is the Boeing 737-800 (738) with a 17.9 per cent share, while third most widely operated type by network capacity is the Airbus A319 (319) with a 10.5 per cent share.

The biggest rises in annual capacity among the top ten aircraft types were recorded by the Boeing 737-800 (Winglets) (73W) with a 369.0 per cent rise in available domestic seats in 2014 versus 2013 and the Airbus A321 (321) with a 48.2 per cent rise. The largest decline in annual capacity was recorded by the Boeing 737-700 (73G) with a fall of 23.1 per cent versus 2013.