Austral Líneas Aéreas

Austral is one of those airlines that many spotters only notice once it no longer exists. For almost five decades it was Argentina’s second major domestic airline, most recently the regional sister of Aerolíneas Argentinas – and at Aeroparque in Buenos Aires, its Embraer 190 was a perfectly everyday sight. At the end of November 2020, the name disappeared. This page shows you what Austral was, which aircraft shaped it and how you can still find its traces today.

Austral at a glance

Austral Líneas Aéreas was an Argentine domestic and regional airline with a hub at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, Buenos Aires’ city airport right on the Río de la Plata. Its network lay mainly within Argentina, with flights to neighboring countries in some phases.

Austral existed as an airline of its own from 1971 to 2020. In the end it belonged fully to Aerolíneas Argentinas, was part of the SkyTeam alliance and flew only a single type: the Embraer 190. On November 30, 2020, the last scheduled flight under its own name took off, and since December 2020 Austral has been absorbed into Aerolíneas Argentinas.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code AU: the identifier in flight numbers, schedules and tickets.
• ICAO code AUT: appears in the air traffic control flight plan and in historical tracker data.
• Callsign AUSTRAL: this is how the crews identified themselves on the radio.

In the last years, Austral and Aerolíneas Argentinas sold their flights jointly. Passengers therefore often saw a flight number with AR on the ticket even though an Austral aircraft was flying. The difference between marketing and operating airline is a classic that the article on callsign and flight number explains in detail. Where callsigns come from in the first place, you can read in airline callsigns and their history.

History: from Patagonia to Aeroparque

Austral’s roots lie in two companies of the late 1950s. Austral CATASACI was created in 1957 and flew mainly to the south of Argentina, to Patagonia; at times it also went to Montevideo and across the Andes to Chile. The second root was Aerotransportes Litoral Argentino (ALA) from Rosario, which served the route to Buenos Aires with small propeller aircraft. From the mid-1960s the two worked closely together, and in June 1971 they merged into Austral Líneas Aéreas.

A chain of ownership changes followed, typical of an Argentine airline:

Year	Event
1971	Merger of Austral CATASACI and ALA into Austral Líneas Aéreas
1980	Nationalization during the military dictatorship
1987	Privatization, takeover by the company Cielos del Sur S.A.
1988	Austral becomes an IATA member
1990	Consortium with Iberia takes over Aerolíneas Argentinas, Austral goes to Iberia
2001	Sale of both airlines to the Spanish Grupo Marsans
2008	Buyback by the Argentine state (July)
2012	Joins SkyTeam together with Aerolíneas Argentinas (August)
2020	Merger with Aerolíneas Argentinas, last flight on November 30

The close tie to Iberia from 1990 made Austral effectively a sister of Aerolíneas Argentinas. Since the renationalization in 2008, both belonged to the state again, with Austral taking on the role of regional carrier within the group. In May 2020, group management announced that the airlines would be merged because of the COVID-19 crisis. The Austral brand was to disappear, and fleet and staff moved to Aerolíneas Argentinas.

The last scheduled flight under the Austral flag took place on November 30, 2020; afterward aircraft and crews flew only as Aerolíneas Argentinas.

The fleet over time

For spotters, the Austral story is above all a story of aircraft generations. Three phases stand out.

Phase	Main types	Spotter note
1970s	NAMC YS-11, BAC One-Eleven 400 and 500	Japanese turboprop and British short-haul jet, both taken over from the predecessor fleets
1980s to 2012	DC-9, MD-81, MD-82, MD-83, MD-88, at times Boeing 737-200	The MD-80s were the workhorse, last flight on April 9, 2012
2010 to 2020	Embraer 190	Finally the only type, 26 aircraft with 96 seats

The early years also include propeller types such as the Curtiss C-46, DC-3, DC-6 and the Fokker F27. The regional subsidiary Inter Austral also used the CASA CN-235 in the 1990s.

BAC One-Eleven and YS-11

With the 1971 merger, the predecessors brought their fleets along: Austral CATASACI, among others, seven BAC One-Elevens of the 400 and 500 series, ALA and CATASACI together several Japanese NAMC YS-11s. The One-Eleven was thus the first jet to shape Austral’s image.

The MD-80 years

From the 1980s the Douglas family took over: first DC-9s, then aircraft of the MD-80 family in the versions MD-81, MD-82, MD-83 and MD-88. With their rear-mounted engines and T-tail, they were a familiar sight at Argentine domestic airports for a long time. On April 9, 2012, the Austral MD-80s flew for the last time. At times the Boeing 737-200 was also part of the fleet. If you are still looking for Douglas jets today, you are more likely to find them at airlines like Andes Líneas Aéreas, which operated MD-80s for a long time. You will find more about the manufacturer on the page on McDonnell Douglas.

The Embraer 190 era

After the renationalization, the group ordered twenty Embraer 190s in 2009 from the Brazilian manufacturer Embraer; the financing came largely from the Brazilian development bank BNDES. The first two jets, LV-CDY and LV-CDZ, arrived in Argentina in September 2010. In 2013 two further new orders were added, and Austral also took on leased used aircraft.

In August 2019, the Austral fleet consisted of 26 E190s with 96 seats each: 8 in business and 88 in economy. The small business cabin at the front is a detail you can look out for in cabin photos.

What became of the E190s

With the merger, the Embraer 190s moved into the Aerolíneas Argentinas fleet. They keep flying there in domestic and regional service – so for spotters in Argentina they have by no means disappeared, they just carry a different brand.

The fleet has not stayed entirely unchanged, however. In September 2024, Aerolíneas Argentinas returned an E190 to its lessor for the first time with LV-GBK; the aircraft had joined the group second-hand in 2016. Further leased examples were also due for return. At the end of 2025, Aerolíneas Argentinas still operated around two dozen E190s. A plan to replace them with the Embraer E195-E2 was suspended after the change of government in Argentina.

How to recognize Austral

What Austral looked like depends heavily on the decade. For the last ten years: in June 2010, Austral and Aerolíneas Argentinas received a joint new look with light blue and yellow. Austral differed mainly by a red cheatline and, of course, by the titles “Austral” on the fuselage. Austral had already received a design of its own in 2007, which was replaced in 2010.

On photos from before 2010, you encounter very different liveries depending on the year. If you want to place archive pictures, type and registration often help you more than the colors. The article livery design explained shows what to look for in liveries in general.

Spotting Austral today

You can no longer photograph the airline itself – but you can photograph its aircraft. Your best chances are in Argentina, above all at Aeroparque in Buenos Aires, where the Aerolíneas Argentinas E190s operate domestic service. Whether individual aircraft still carry remnants of the old Austral livery depends on the particular aircraft and the repaint schedule; after the merger, the Austral titles disappeared gradually.

For the E190 itself, a look at the differences within the family is worthwhile. How to tell the E170, E175, E190 and E195 apart is shown in the guide telling Embraer E-Jets apart. If you collect further airlines in Argentina, you will meet providers like Flybondi and JetSMART Argentina besides Aerolíneas Argentinas.

SkyTeam and alliance livery

In August 2012, Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral jointly joined the SkyTeam alliance. Aerolíneas Argentinas was thus the first airline from South America in the alliance. For Austral, that mainly meant that its domestic flights served as feeders for the alliance partners’ long-haul routes. How alliances make their members visible with logos and special liveries, you can read in the article on alliance liveries.

Accidents in its history

Like many airlines with a long history, Austral also experienced serious accidents. The most consequential involved early propeller aircraft, the BAC One-Eleven and the Douglas jets. The worst occurred on October 10, 1997: Austral Flight 2553, a DC-9-32 with the registration LV-WEG, crashed in a storm in Uruguay on its way to Buenos Aires. All 74 people on board died; the probable cause is considered to be iced-over airspeed measurement. Another Argentine airline that gained sad notoriety through an accident in this period was LAPA.

Common mix-ups

• Confusing Austral with Air Austral – Air Austral is a French airline from La Réunion and has nothing to do with Argentina.
• Equating an AR flight number with an Aerolíneas aircraft – until 2020, an Austral aircraft was often flying behind an AR number.
• Logging a present-day E190 as Austral – since December 2020 it flies for Aerolíneas Argentinas.
• Thinking the E190 is an all-economy aircraft – the Argentine E190s have a small business cabin.
• Confusing the MD-80 and DC-9 – Austral flew both; the MD-80 is longer and has larger engines.

Conclusion

For almost 50 years, Austral was a fixture of Argentine air travel – from the One-Elevens of the 1970s through the MD-80 to the Embraer 190. As a brand it has been history since the end of 2020, but its last aircraft keep flying under Aerolíneas Argentinas. If you document your sightings in your logbook with date and registration, you can trace exactly when an aircraft was still Austral and when it no longer was.