List of largest airlines in South America explained

This is a list of largest airlines active in South America (beyond 100 thousand passengers/year). It is ranked by number of carried passengers.

By passengers carried (millions)

Rank	Origin	Airline/ holding	'23	'22	'21	'20	'19	'18	'17	'16	'15	'14	'13	'12	'11	'10	'09	'08	'07	Passenger fleet	Current destinations	Alliance
1	Chile Brazil		73.89	62.46	40.19	28.30	74.18	68.80	67.1	66.9	67.8	67.8	66.7	65.0	60.3	51.8	45.8	43.4	38.9	294	144	N/A
2	Colombia El Salvador		31.95	24.99	14.15	7.88	30.53	30.50	29.4	29.4	28.3	26.2	24.6	23.1	20.8	11.7	10.2	9.0	8.3	120	~66	Star Alliance
3	Brazil		30.97	27.26	18.96	16.78	36.44	33.41	32.4	32.3	38.8	39.7	36.3	39.2	36.2	32.9	28.4	25.6	23.7	146	~61	N/A
4	Brazil		29.28	27.48	23.31	14.80	27.67	24.15	20.7	19.8	20.5	20.0	18.3	15.8	11.4	6.6	3.7	1.4	0.4	196	161	N/A
5	Argentina		13.84	11.45	4.83	3.10	13.33	13.03	12.83	11.25	10.44	9.22	8.28	6.80	6.12	6.34	5.33	5.49	6.33	77	57	SkyTeam
6			8.7	7.12	3.65	2.64	5.77	4.20	3.81	3.22	2.94	2.74	2.46	1.92	1.54	1.18	0.93	0.81	0.67	28	35	N/A
7				5.22	2.56	1.74	4.45	1.89	0.33	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	22	24	N/A
8		Boliviana de Aviación		4.30	3.29	1.80	3.67	3.64	3.22	2.95	2.49	1.9	1.66	-	-	-	-	-	-	21	16	N/A
9		Flybondi	4.00	2.36	0.89	0.33	1.51	0.76	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	5	15	N/A
10				2.08	1.43	0.74	2.40	2.39	2.13	1.95	1.96	2.22	2.70	2.86	2.84	2.86	2.50	2.16	2.27	8	20	N/A
11		Clic Air		1.92	1.42	0.73	2.00	1.21	0.99	0.96	0.93	0.79	0.74	0.63	0.53	0.36	0.28	0.18	0.01	18	16	N/A
12		Satena		1.04	0.89	0.41	1.14	1.12	1.03	0.98	1.01	0.93	0.79	0.75	0.82	0.98	0.96	1.01	1.04	10	31	N/A
13		Star Perú		0.89	0.55	0.29	0.42	0.32	0.37	0.49	0.59	0.62	0.62	0.78	0.84	0.66	0.50	0.53	0.53	8	10	N/A
14			0.85	0.66	0.54	0.38	0.59	0.59	0.72	1.03	1.30	0.95	0.75	0.72	0.85	0.67	0.37	0.14	0.07	14	19	N/A
15		Amaszonas		0.54	0.59	0.39	0.41	0.48	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	13	9	N/A
16		Ecojet		0.25	0.27	0.14	0.46	0.41	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	4	9	N/A
17		Atsa		0.14	0.12	0.05	0.13	0.09	0.07	0.05	0.04	0.05	0.04	0.09	0.06	0.04	0.03	0.04	0.03	6	5	N/A
18	Argentina	Andes	0.15	0.03	0.0	0.0	0.4

Notes

• Includes LAN Airlines and TAM Airlines.
• Includes Gol Transportes Aéreos and VARIG.
• Includes Avianca Colombia, Avianca Peru, Avianca El Salvador, Avianca Costa Rica, Avianca Ecuador, Avianca Nicaragua, Avianca Honduras and Avianca Guatemala.
• Includes Austral Líneas Aéreas.
• Includes TRIP Linhas Aéreas.
• Includes JetSmart Argentina and Norwegian Air Argentina.
• Includes VivaAir Colombia and Viva Air Peru.
• Includes Sky Airline Peru
  • Includes MAP Linhas Aéreas Includes Aerorepública and Copa Airlines Colombia (subsidiary of Copa Airlines)

Information was updated on Feb, 2023

Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay have no airline relevant to the South America market. Venezuela's information is not available

Sources

Countries (every airline but LATAM and Avianca)Argentina (ANAC), Brazil (ANAC), Bolivia (DGAC), Chile (JAC), Colombia (Aeronáutica Civil), Ecuador (DGAC), Paraguay (DINAC),Peru (MTC),Uruguay (DINACIA)

AirlinesAvianca HoldingsLATAM Group