OREANDA-NEWS. Argentina plans to double the number of domestic flights as the young business-oriented government opens the sector to more competition.

"We will double the number of domestic flights in four years," transport minister Guillermo Dietrich said at a 27 May industry conference.

Part of that increase will come from taking Buenos Aires out of the equation.

"We want to connect more provinces without passing through Buenos Aires," said Isela Costantini, chief executive of state-owned Aerolineas Argentinas.

Even though the government of President Mauricio Macri has vowed to usher in more activity, Dietrich emphasized that the country would not pursue an "open skies" policy.

But even a slight easing of the sector's traditionally constrained operating framework has kindled industry enthusiasm.

"Argentina is the opportunity in the region," said LATAM Argentina chief executive Rosario Altgelt, who said the number of airline passengers per capita is lower here than in other countries in the region, including Brazil, Chile and Colombia. "We know it is a market that has a very important potential for growth."

Pedro Heilbron, chief executive of Panama's Copa, agreed: "As opposed to other countries in Latin America, there has not been a large increase in capacity."

One of the new entrants in the domestic market will be Colombia's Avianca, which plans to operate 18 planes by the end of 2018, said Avianca chairman German Efromovich.

Avianca will compete against longtime Chilean incumbent LAN, which recently merged with Brazil's TAM to form LATAM. Under the previous administration, LAN had suffered systematic friction with authorities, which it accused of unfairly favoring money-losing Aerolineas.

"The government didn't want LAN to grow," Altgelt said.

In one sign of the altered climate, Aerolineas is no longer pushed by the government to buy fuel from state-controlled YPF.

"We use three, YPF, Axion and Shell," Costantini said.

Axion is a unit of Bridas, which is a 50:50 joint venture between local firm Bridas Energy and China's state-owned CNOOC.

Earlier this year, the Argentinian government said it would invest almost $1bn over the next four years to upgrade 14 airports across the country.

Although lower crude prices decreased fuel costs for many airlines, the trend has not had a similar effect across Latin America because of weaker local currencies.

"Even though fuel prices have decreased, the dollar has also strengthened," said IATA's Americas regional vice-president Peter Cerda.