Flights between mainland Argentina and Malvinas: 5 airlines interested

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that relations with Argentina will continue to grow despite the nations’ dispute over the Malvinas Islands sovereignty. Throughout the tour, Johnson has focused on the prospects of strengthening trade and investment ties with countries in the region. “There are big opportunities for UK business here. We don’t do nearly enough. There’s a low base, but we are going to build on it very fast,” he said. “It is true that we are doing a great deal together now and we are building a partnership in security, transport, health and technology,” Foreign Secretary Johnson told.  “Our two positions are well known ...but that does not preclude and should not preclude all what we are doing together now to build a partnership ... and in the intensifying commercial relationship.”

The islands, located less than 500 kilometers from the coast of Argentina, are controlled by London since the nineteenth century, although the dispute over their sovereignty remains a very sensitive issue in Argentina. In a breakthrough after decades of tense relations, both nations agreed in 2016 to lift restrictions on the extraction of natural resources, shipping and fishing industries in the Malvinas, and increase the number of flights between the islands and South America.

Foreign Argentine Minister Faurie said that so far, bids have already been received from 5 companies — 2 in Chile, 2 in Brazil, and one in Uruguay — have offered to provide flights to the Malvinas Islands through Argentina mainland, proposals that are being analyzed by the Argentine and British aeronautical authorities, and that hope to reach a definition in the coming months. The new flights will take place within the framework of a 1990 agreement that allows countries of the South American block Mercosur to expand its offer of flights to the Malvinas Islands, with a stopover in mainland Argentina.  Currently, there are only commercial flights to the islands from Chile, with a weekly frequency. Just once a month, one of them stops at Río Gallegos, in southern Argentina.