An Airline in Argentina Is Offering $7 Flights 

(Bloomberg) -- Cheap travel has arrived in Argentina.

Airlines are offering major discounts on domestic flights after Argentina’s pro-business government, in an effort to boost tourism, scrapped a regulation that set a minimum price that carriers were required to charge their clients.

Aerolineas Argentinas website crashed Wednesday morning as customers rushed to grab flights for 499 pesos ($18.20). Low-cost carrier FlyBondi slashed prices on round-trip flights between Buenos Aires and Bariloche to as low as 199 pesos ($7.26), according to its website. Regional airline Latam offered flights between Buenos Aires and Cordoba for 449 pesos. Customers must buy flights 30 days in advance of the trip to qualify for the price cut.

It’s a major decline from current prices. A flight in August from Buenos Aires to Mendoza, the capital of the nation’s famed wine region, costs 2,785 pesos with Aerolineas Argentinas. FlyBondi and Latam are offering the same route for 699 and 679 pesos, respectively.

The government’s decision to open up Argentina to low-cost carriers is already a controversial issue in Argentina because powerful labor unions warn it will lead to job losses at Aerolineas, whose employees staged a one-day strike on July 13. They protested against low airfares, which they argue would hinder their ability to compete for domestic flights.

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Gillespie in Buenos Aires at pgillespie29@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Vivianne Rodrigues at vrodrigues3@bloomberg.net, Walter Brandimarte, Andres R. Martinez

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