Airlines flock to South America

September 7, 2011 by Rapeepat Mantanarat

BANGKOK, 7 September 2011 – Lufthansa, KLM and Emirates are all about to launch new flights to destinations in South America during their upcoming winter timetable, effective 30 October.

Fares are already on the market and competitive in range.

Lufthansa intends to start a five-weekly Rio de Janeiro service, its second Brazilian city after Sao Paolo. Lufthansa already flies to Buenos Aires in Argentina, Bogota in Colombia and Caracas in Venezuela.

KLM says it will resume its Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro from 31 October and 1 November respectively with three weekly services each.

The airlines are offer services to four South American destinations including Sao Paulo in Brazil, Quito and Guayaquil in Ecuador and Paramaribo in Suriname.

Starting 3 January, Emirates will expand also to Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro both with daily services. Emirates offers the most convenient schedule of all three airlines. The flight will stop at Rio de Janeiro before continuing to Buenos Aires.

Fares are close, but Emirates’ business fare is why out of kilter at Bt100,000 more than the two European carrier.

To Rio De Janeiro, KLM pitches its lowest fare at Bt66,540 with a four and a half hour downtime in Amsterdam on the outbound sector and eight hours on the return sector. Emirates sells economy to the Brazilian city from Bt78,285, while Lufthansa sets its fare at Bt94,510. The downtime in Dubai is one hour, outbound and four hours, inbound. Meanwhile, passengers will have to wait four hours and eight hours at Frankfurt on out and in-bound sectors; not a viable option between two long-haul flights.

As for business class, KLM’s fares start from Bt202,860, while Lufthansa pegs its lowest fare at Bt210,180 and Emirates at Bt346,620.

To Buenos Aires, Emirates has a slightly lower fare than KLM at Bt Bt78,460 compared to Bt79,970.

The business class fares of both airlines start from Bt352,625 for Emirates and Bt202,245, KLM.

Connecting time in Dubai is the same as to Rio De Janeiro with an additional wait of around two hours at Rio De Janeiro airport before the flight takes off again to either Dubai or Buenos Aires.

The KLM flight has a down time of four to five hours in Amsterdam.

Other airlines offering services to South America include Air France, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways and South African Airways.

Above fares are subject to change due to currency fluctuation and lowest fares are limited and may not be available for the most seamless flights.

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