Latin America’s gradual shift towards liberalisation has taken a step backwards with Argentina moving to protect its renationalised flag carrier as it attempts to restructure.

Uruguay’s Pluna has been blocked from launching new routes to the country by the Argentinean government, which sees Pluna as stealing from Aerolineas Argentinas passengers that are travelling from regional cities in Argentina to Brazil. The Uruguayan government has accused its Argentinean counterpart of violating their bilateral by denying new traffic rights to Pluna, which relies heavily on transfer traffic as part of a new strategy focusing on regional connections. The dispute is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon and has forced Pluna to adjust its expansion strategy.

Pluna is now redirecting capacity that had been earmarked to open up Trelew and other new destinations in Argentina to Paraguay, where it aims to eventually operate a mini-hub at Asuncion starting with flights to Santiago in C

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