Southern Winds Airlines (also known as ''SW Airlines'') was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

commercial air carrier that operated from 1996 until 2005. Southern Winds was founded by Juan Maggio, who served as president of the company.

History

Initially a domestic carrier, Southern Winds began offering connections to international flights in 1997. The airline's own international operations were authorized by the Argentine Government in 2001. At its peak, Southern Winds operated an extensive domestic network, international flights within the South American region, and intercontinental services from

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

and

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

; and charter destinations like Florianopolis, Porto Seguro, Camboriu, Tacna and Punta Cana. Hubs were maintained in Córdoba (from 1996) and Buenos Aires (from 1999). Southern Winds' fleet was composed initially by Bombardier and later the

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

passenger planes. Though the company was founded as a passenger carrier, cargo transport services began in 2000 under the brand name ''SW Cargo''. In 2003, an alliance was struck between Southern Winds and the Argentine-state owned Líneas Aéreas Federales (LAFSA) that involved utilization by LAFSA of Southern Winds' flight infrastructure. By 2004, Southern Winds was a leading commercial carrier in the troubled Argentine aviation industry. That September, however, airport police in Madrid discovered of

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

packed in four unaccompanied suitcases aboard an arriving Southern Winds flight. The resulting scandal cost the airline its government subsidy, and ultimately resulted in the carrier's collapse. The last flight was operated on December 5, 2005, although several proposals for the airline's revival continued to surface by 2006.

Destinations

* ** Bariloche ( San Carlos de Bariloche Airport) **

( Aeroparque Jorge Newbery) Base **Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini International Airport) Base ** Comodoro Rivadavia ( General Enrique Mosconi International Airport) ** Córdoba ( Ingeniero Aeronáutico Ambrosio L.V. Taravella International Airport) Base ** El Calafate ( Comandante Armando Tola International Airport) ** Mar del Plata ( Astor Piazzolla International Airport) ** Mendoza ( Governor Francisco Gabrielli International Airport) **

Neuquén Neuquén (; ) is the capital city of the Argentine province of Neuquén and of the Confluencia Department, located in the east of the province. It occupies a strip of land west of the confluence of the Limay and Neuquén rivers which form t ...

( Presidente Perón International Airport) **

Puerto Iguazú Puerto Iguazú is a border city in the provinces of Argentina, province of Misiones Province, Misiones, Argentina. With a population of 82,227 (), it is the fourth largest city in the Misiones Province, Province, after Posadas, Misiones, Posadas, ...

( Cataratas del Iguazú International Airport) ** Resistencia (

Resistencia International Airport Resistencia International Airport (, ) is an airport in Chaco Province, Argentina serving the city of Resistencia. It is also known as ''Aeropuerto de Resistencia General José de San Martín''. The airport is operated by Aeropuertos Argentin ...

) ** Río Gallegos ( Piloto Civil Norberto Fernández International Airport) **

Salta Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Salta Province, the same name. With a population of 618,375 according to the 2010 census, it is also the List of cities in Argentina, 7th most-populous ...

( Martín Miguel de Güemes International Airport) ** San Juan ( Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Airport) ** San Martín de los Andes ( Aviador Carlos Campos Airport) ** Tucumán ( Teniente General Benjamín Matienzo International Airport) **

San Salvador de Jujuy San Salvador de Jujuy (), commonly known as Jujuy and locally often referred to as San Salvador, is the capital and largest city of Jujuy Province in northwest Argentina. Also, it is the seat of the Doctor Manuel Belgrano Department. It lies near ...

( Gobernador Horacio Guzmán International Airport) ** Ushuaia ( Ushuaia – Malvinas Argentinas International Airport) * ** Tacna ( Coronel FAP Carlos Ciriani Santa Rosa International Airport) * **

( Adolfo Suárez Madrid–Barajas Airport) * **

( Miami International Airport)

Fleet

Southern Winds operated the following aircraft during its operations:

References

# Site launched in 2003. Inactive end of 2005. {{Airlines of Argentina Defunct airlines of Argentina Airlines established in 1996 Airlines disestablished in 2005 Argentine companies established in 1996 2005 disestablishments in Argentina

History

Destinations

Fleet

See also

References