Sky Airline, styled as SꓘY, is an airline based at Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago, Chile. It is the second largest airline in the country behind flag-carrier LATAM Airlines and the first airline to operate under a low-cost model in the country. It serves international routes to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. It also operates charter flights in Chile and South America and domestic flights within Peru.

History

Sky Airline was founded in 1981 as Flight Service - Servicios Aereos Ltda, operating air taxi services within Chile with 2 Piper PA-23-250F Aztec (CC-CGB and CC-CGC) and 1 Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain (CC-CFE) from Modelillo airport in Valparaiso, later moving to Los Cerrillos in Santiago. In 1999, it became controlled by a company made up of Jürgen Paulmann and Fernando Uauy, a businessman who had worked at National Airlines of Chile and Avant Airlines. The operation then changed its name to Sky Airline and began operating charters to Cuba in July 2001 with a Boeing 737/200 Adv. Sky Airline was controlled by its founder, Jürgen Paulmann (1930–2014), a German-Chilean businessman, brother of retail billionaire Horst Paulmann. It started Chilean domestic operations in December 2001 and made the first flights from Santiago to Northern Chile in June 2002. Since 2005 is a full member of IATA. In April 2009, the company signed an agreement with Aerolíneas Argentinas, allowing the Argentinean flag carrier to offer in all its commercial offices and through its electronic ticket system most of the destinations covered by Sky Airline in Chile. In 2011, it signed a codeshare agreement with TACA for domestic flights in Chile, Peru and between both countries. In 2012 it signed a codeshare agreement with TACA's parent company, Colombia's Avianca for operations between Chile and Colombia. The airline planned to transition to a low-cost carrier model during 2015 and 2016 to reduce costs. On June 28, 2023, it was announced that Avianca and Gol Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes plan to add Sky to their proposed Abra Group.

Awards

Sky Airline was named the Best Regional Airline in South America in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 Skytrax World Airline Awards. In addition, OAG (Official Airline Guide) declared Sky Airline as the most punctual airline of 2016.

Maintenance

Maintenance services are supplied by AIRMAN, a sister maintenance company based in Santiago Airport.

Destinations

Fleet

Current fleet

As of November 2023 the Sky Airline fleet consists of the following aircraft:

Fleet development

In September 2018 Airbus delivered the airline's first A320neo. In June 2019 Sky Airline signed a lease contract for three A321neo from Air Lease Corporation with deliveries scheduled in 2020 and 2021. The first A321neo was delivered in June 2021. In December 2019 the airline ordered 10 A321XLR.

Former fleet

Since its beginnings, Sky Airline operated a 100% Boeing 737 fleet, these began to be replaced by Airbus A320 family planes in 2010 and were fully withdrawn in 2013.

Incidents and accidents