Chilean low-cost carrier SKY Airline has signed a purchase agreement with Airbus for 10 A321XLRs.
The airline’s main goal with this order is to open up new routes to international destinations, possibly including North American cities like Miami.
“This new aircraft fleet will allow us to expand our offer of international and wide-ranging routes, always under our successful low-cost model and its extremely convenient ticket prices.”
“Now passengers can enjoy new and very attractive destinations on the most modern airplanes in the market,”
said Holger Paulmann, CEO of SKY.
SKY Airlines was founded in 2001 and is based at Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, Chile and it is the second-largest airline in the country behind LATAM Airlines. Currently, the airline operates 18 routes; many of them between Chilean cities but they also have destinations to Bolivia, Argentina, Peru, Brazil, and Uruguay.
SKY has been an Airbus customer since 2010 and became an all-Airbus operator in 2013. Nowadays Sky has a fleet of 23 aircraft, consisting of nine A319-100s with 150 seats and 14 A320neos with 186 seats. This new agreement will join a previous one for 13 A321neos and seven A320neos that remain to be delivered.
Arturo Barreira, President of Airbus Latin America, said “We are delighted that SKY has selected the A321XLR to further expand its fleet of all Airbus aircraft. The A321XLR will allow SKY to offer its customers new destinations, such as direct flights from Santiago in Chile to Miami in the U.S.”
The Airbus A321XLR ‘Extra Long Range’ is the longest-range version of the A321neo, it can fly up to 700nm farther than the existing A321LR ‘Longer Range’. This aircraft was launched at the Paris Air Show 2019 and so far has collected more than 300 orders and commitments.