SOUTHERN WINDS, S. A.: Cordoba Airport, Av. Colon 540, Cordoba 5147, Argentina; Phone (051) 24 1212; Fax (051) 24 7251; Http://www. sw. com. ar; Code A4; Year Founded 1996. The most successful of several new Argentine regional carriers begun in the mid-1990s, Southern Winds is established at Cordoba, 340 mi. NW of Buenos Aires, as Pampas Air in the spring of 1996. Founder/President Juan Maggio, an executive formerly with LADE (Lineas Aereas del Estado, S. A.) intends to provide scheduled services to provinces in the Argentine central interior (bypassing Buenos Aires) not with the usual turboprops, but with the more advanced regional jets now becoming available. This concept wins capitalization from a number of banks, including Newcourt and Craft and National Westminster, and a small workforce of about 30 people is recruited.
Southern Winds, as the company is now renamed, becomes the South American launch customer for the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet. It also takes over most of the Cordoba-based business of Austral Express, S. A. when that regional, previously known as Inter Austral, S. A., transfers its hub to Buenos Aires.
Two Canadair CRJ100LRs, wearing a livery nearly identical to that of Bombardier, their manufacturer, are brought in and employed on July 1 to launch revenue return flights from Cordoba to Tucuman, Salta, Mendoza, Neuquen, and Bariloche. In October, Aerolineas Argentinas, S. A. contracts with the new entrant to provide a daily roundtrip replacement service on its behalf from Cordoba and Rosario to Ezeiza.
Enplanements for the inaugural period total 120,000. Although revenues are $9 million, initial costs bring a $200,000 loss.
In 1997, the earlier block-seat, code-sharing agreement with Aerolin-eas Argentinas, S. A. blossoms into a full-scale strategic alliance, under which the major not only offers payment, but provides ticketing, checkin, and ground handling. Destinations visited include Bariloche, Buenos Aires, Mar del Plata, Mendoza, Neuquen, Rio Cuarto, Rosario, Salta, and Tucuman.
Enplanements of 285,360 are announced for the year. It is also noted that the company has operational revenues of $30 million and a net gain of $1 million.
It is revealed in June 1998 that the company is in need of additional capitalization in order to expand and to begin service to Buenos Aires. Alternatives that will be considered are acquisition of a merger partner willing to take a 40% stake or an initial public offering, either of which are designed to bring in approximately $15 million.
By now, the national economy is slowing somewhat and fuel prices begin to rise. A number of routes previously operated by CRJs are turned over to the first of six de Havilland Canada DHC-8-102s that will joint the fleet over the next year. Buenos Aires is on the schedule when the new timetable starts at the end of October. Additionally, charter flights are now added to Porto Seguro, Brazil.
In December, a homepage is launched on the Internet’s World Wide Web.
The fleet in 1999 includes 6 Dash-8s and 5 CRJ100LRs. During the fall, the strategic alliance with Aerolineas Argentinas, S. A. is terminated, as the major turns to its own Aerolineas Argentinas Express operation. AR Express, operated by AeroVIP, S. A., begins flying as a low-cost regional, forcing Southern Winds to file a “dumping” lawsuit, charging that the new services it flies are operated below cost to drive Southern Winds off certain routes.
Southern Winds, meanwhile, continues to operate all of its previous routes, including all of the services once provided to Aerolineas, except the daily roundtrips to Ezeiza. Two Dash-8s are withdrawn.
Passenger boardings skyrocket a remarkable 233.3% to 1,000,000. Revenues leap ahead by 350% to $60 million.
The workforce stands at 700 at the beginning of 2000. A total of 60 daily flights are offered to and between Cordoba, Salta, Tucuman, Cata-marca, La Rioja, San Juan, Mendoza, Resistencia, Santa Fe, Rosario, Rio Cuarto, Buenos Aires, Punta del Este, Mar del Plata, Santa Maria de Los Andes, Neuquen, Bariloche, and Comodoro Rivadavia.
CRJ flights begin on March 26 from Rio Gallego to both Buenos Aires and Cordoba. Two more CRJs, Dash-200ERs, are received, on each on April 9 and April 12.
World History
