JetSMART to Fly Buenos Aires to Porto Seguro From January 2027
Brazil · AVIATION
Key Facts
- —Launch JetSMART opens the Porto Seguro route from Buenos Aires on 5 January 2027.
- —Schedule Five weekly flights run Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays until March 2027.
- —Aircraft An Airbus A321 with 240 seats gives 2,400 weekly seats both ways.
- —Fares Brazilian sales start at 608 reais (US$ 117.82) per leg, taxes included.
- —Exchange rate The PTAX selling rate was 5.1604 reais per dollar on 26 August 2026.
A seasonal Airbus A321 service links Argentina’s capital with Bahia’s biggest beach destination from January.
JetSMART will open a nonstop Porto Seguro route from Buenos Aires on 5 January 2027, with five flights a week. The low-cost airline plans an Airbus A321 with 240 seats, on a seasonal schedule ending in March.
A low-cost link from Buenos Aires to Bahia
The announcement came on 26 August 2026 from JetSMART, the Chilean-owned ultra-low-cost carrier. Porto Seguro already handles some international traffic, but this is JetSMART’s first service into Bahia.
The flights will run five times a week, on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. JetSMART plans to use an Airbus A321 fitted with 240 seats.
That schedule offers 1,200 seats a week in each direction, or 2,400 seats in total. The airline expects to carry about 7,000 passengers a month.
It is the carrier’s sixth Brazilian destination served from Argentina and its eighth new route of 2026. Fares from Brazil start at 608 reais (US$ 117.82) per leg, taxes included.
All conversions here use the PTAX reference rate of the Banco Central do Brasil, the central bank. Its selling rate stood at 5.1604 reais per dollar on 26 August 2026.
What summer 2027 really means
The wording of the announcement is easy to misread north of the equator. In the Southern Hemisphere, summer runs from December to March, not from June to September.
The Porto Seguro route is therefore a Southern summer service inside the 2026 to 2027 season. Flights begin on 5 January 2027 and finish in March 2027.
This is a seasonal operation rather than a year-round one, and no continuation date has been set. Travellers planning trips after March 2027 should not count on it yet.
Brazilian and Argentine school holidays cluster in January and February, which explains the timing. Carnival falls in February 2027, the busiest stretch of the coastal calendar.
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Which Buenos Aires airport
Buenos Aires has two commercial airports, and the choice matters for connections and ground time. The airline has not said publicly whether the flight uses Ezeiza or Aeroparque.
Ezeiza, formally Ministro Pistarini International Airport, lies outside the city and takes most long-haul traffic. Aeroparque Jorge Newbery sits on the riverfront, minutes from downtown.
JetSMART’s other Brazilian services from Argentina, including Recife and Maceió, operate from Ezeiza. Schedule filings for the December 2026 Maceió launch also list Ezeiza as the Buenos Aires end.
On that pattern Ezeiza is the likely base for the new Porto Seguro route. The airport remains unconfirmed by JetSMART, and this article treats it as such.
Where the approvals stand
Brazil’s aviation regulator is the Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil, known as ANAC. Argentina’s regulator carries the same initials, for the Administración Nacional de Aviación Civil.
Neither agency had published an authorisation for the Porto Seguro route when this article was written. The move is so far a commercial launch rather than a confirmed regulatory approval.
Tickets are already on sale through the airline’s website and through travel agencies. That normally signals confidence that filings and slots will clear in time.
Slot pressure is light at Porto Seguro, which is not a slot-coordinated airport. The Buenos Aires end is the tighter constraint, and no slot allocation has been made public.
Who JetSMART is
JetSMART was founded in 2016 and is based in Santiago, Chile. It started flying in July 2017 and now serves destinations across South America.
The controlling shareholder is Indigo Partners, a United States investment fund. The same fund backs Frontier Airlines, Volaris in Mexico and Wizz Air in Hungary.
The group flies an all-Airbus fleet drawn from the A320 and A321 families. Its Argentine arm plans more than 20 aircraft for the coming summer, including ten A321s.
From Argentina it already reaches Rio de Janeiro, Florianópolis, Recife, Natal and Maceió. The Porto Seguro route would be the sixth city on that list.
The Argentina to Bahia market today
Argentina is by far Brazil’s largest source of foreign visitors. The Ministério do Turismo, the federal tourism ministry, counted 3,386,823 Argentine arrivals in 2025.
That was 36.5 percent of the 9,287,196 international visitors Brazil received that year. Roughly one in three foreign tourists in the country came from Argentina.
Bahia drew 123,500 international tourists between January and July 2026, up 6.1 percent on the year. Embratur, the Brazilian tourism promotion agency, ranks the state fourth nationally.
Salvador has had direct Buenos Aires flights from Flybondi since December 2025. Aerolíneas Argentinas began its own Buenos Aires to Porto Seguro service in April 2024.
Bahia’s tourism secretariat, known as Setur-BA, courted JetSMART at roadshows in Buenos Aires and Córdoba. Its promotion director said the airline was tracking Argentine interest in the state’s coast.
What Porto Seguro brings to the deal
Porto Seguro International Airport handled a record 1,306,344 passengers in 2025. It logged 8,967 landings, and international movements rose to 204 from 121 a year earlier.
International passengers there grew more than 70 percent in 2025, reaching 29,014. ANAC data showed 400,800 passengers in the first quarter of 2026, up 20.76 percent.
The runway was lengthened from 1,850 metres to 2,000 metres in 2024. State spending of 27.2 million reais (US$ 5.27 million) covered that work and later runway grooving.
Governor Jerônimo Rodrigues says the terminal cannot absorb much more traffic in peak weeks. Bahia is redesigning a 1.5 billion reais (US$ 290.68 million) replacement airport at Santa Cruz Cabrália.
What it means for travellers
The Porto Seguro route removes a connection through São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro. Argentine holidaymakers gain a direct path to the Costa do Descobrimento beaches.
Porto Seguro is one of Brazil’s larger hotel markets, with resort districts at Trancoso and Arraial d’Ajuda. An older count by the state hotel association put local capacity near 48,000 beds.
The same association has reported January occupancy of about 90 percent in the town. Adding 2,400 weekly seats will test rooms, transfers and the terminal at once.
Low fares come with the usual ultra-low-cost rules on bags, seat choice and changes. Buyers should read the fare conditions before comparing the headline price with legacy carriers.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the Porto Seguro route start and how long does it run?
JetSMART plans to begin on 5 January 2027 and to fly until March 2027. The service is seasonal, covering the Southern Hemisphere summer of 2026 to 2027.
Which Buenos Aires airport will the flights use?
JetSMART has not confirmed the airport. Its other Brazilian services from Argentina leave from Ezeiza, so that remains the likely choice.
Is the service already approved by regulators?
No authorisation from ANAC in Brazil or ANAC in Argentina had been published by 27 August 2026. Tickets are on sale, but the approval status is unconfirmed.
Connected Coverage
JetSmart Announces Flights Between Florianópolis and Córdoba From December
Sources
- www.panrotas.com.br
- www.aviacionnews.com
- bahiasocialvip.com.br
- www.tudodeviagem.com
- www.aeroroutes.com
- en.mercopress.com
- aeroin.net
- www.bahianoticias.com.br
- www.bahianoticias.com.br
- atarde.com.br
- jornalgrandebahia.com.br
- portoseguro.ba.gov.br
- embratur.com.br
- istoedinheiro.com.br
- jetsmart.com
- olinda.bcb.gov.br
- riotimesonline.com
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