OAG Travel News

In addition to my fascination with aviation and American football, I’ve had a life-long interest in true stories – especially those that include heroic efforts... and airplanes.  This weekend I went to see a documentary film about the crash of Uruguayan Air Force flight 571 that occurred in the Andes mountains in October 1972.  The flight was scheduled to transport a team of rugby players and other friends and family members from Montevideo, Uruguay, to Santiago, Chile, for a rugby match.  After stopping overnight in Mendoza, Argentina, due bad weather, the flight went down in a remote area of the Andes along the Argentina/Chile border.  The accident has been the subject of several books and movies.  The most recent movie – a 2007 documentary entitled Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains – was showing at a local theater this week – a limited release. 

Although the affected flight was operated by the Uruguayan Air Force, my thoughts following the film turned to the scheduled air service in South America – specifically in the cities that had been involved in the disaster.  Following is a summary of their air service levels today.

Santiago, Chile (SCL)
With an average of 230 daily flights, Santiago is the seventh-largest airport in South America, and the largest in Chile.  Flights are available to eight countries in South America in addition to destinations in Canada (Toronto), the Caribbean (Cuba, Dominican Republic), France (Paris), Mexico (Cancun and Mexico City), New Zealand (Auckland), Spain (Madrid), and the United States (Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami and New York).  In addition, 13 domestic destinations within Chile are served nonstop from Santiago.

Montevideo, Uruguay (MVD)
Uruguay is home to two airports with scheduled commercial air service – Montevideo and Punta del Este.  With nearly 40 daily flights, Montevideo accounts for 80 percent of all Uruguay’s scheduled commercial flights.  Passengers can reach 13 destinations nonstop from Montevideo, including cities in five countries in South America, Panama, Spain (Madrid), and the United States (Miami).

Montevideo – Santiago Nonstop Service
Today, two airlines offer nonstop service between Montevideo and Santiago.  Both LAN Airlines and PLUNA operte the service daily.  Santiago-based LAN operates the flights with a combination of Airbus aircraft – the A318, the A319, and the A320.  Montevideo-based PLUNA operates the service with 90-seat Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ).

Mendoza, Argentina (MDZ)
Mendoza ranks as the seventh-largest airport in Argentina with nearly 20 daily flights.  Mendoza has nonstop service to three cities –Buenos Aires, Argentina; San Juan, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile.

The miracle of the survival of 16 passengers on board Uruguyan Air Force flight 571 still resonates today, nearly 40 years after the accident.  And with two recent nonfatal accidents in the United States – Continental 1404 in Denver and US Airways 1549 in New York – we are reminded at how fragile and at the same time how phenomenal aviation is, and how lucky we are to take advantage of how aviation has changed the course of history – and the human spirit.

Source: Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Tapes; Air Transport Intelligence.  Flight operations for represent service in January 2009 only.  Airport rankings based on operations of scheduled commercial flights as included in OAG.

OAG contributor Laura Jackson was just two weeks old when she took her first flight on Piedmont Airlines.  In junior high school, she developed a business plan for her own airline.  Today she manages strategy and policy issues at one of the world's busiest airports and provides original content and aviation industry analysis for OAG.