Milei Associate's $1.7 Billion Promise Hasn't Put Flybondi Back in the Air

What Happened

President Javier Milei's ally promised $1.7 billion to save the budget carrier about eight months ago, and Flybondi is now on the edge of collapse.

Last year, Scatturice's Miami investment firm took control as lead shareholder of FB Lineas Aereas SA - which operates as Flybondi - and pledged the funds to modernize its aging fleet.

During December, Scatturice said the carrier intended to purchase a minimum of 25 newly built jets from Boeing Co. and Airbus SE. "We're taking a historic step for Flybondi," Scatturice declared in December. "Investing is believing, and today we believe more than ever in the future."

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For about two weeks in July, no Flybondi aircraft took off at all.

The president has stayed silent about Scatturice, whose companies have won contracts under Milei or have connections to Donald Trump, his ally in Washington. That quiet is out of character for Milei, a libertarian who usually does not hesitate to attack business leaders he sees as inept.

Scatturice's COC Global Enterprise and Airbus each declined to respond, while Boeing pointed questions to Flybondi. No reply came from the presidential press operation.

Flybondi urgently needs the fleet overhaul Scatturice talked about. The newest plane in its fleet is more than 15 years old, and the airline has flown only five of its 11 aircraft over the past two months, per aviation data firm Cirium. Meanwhile, FlightRadar24 listings of recent Flybondi flights indicated just two planes currently in service.

That phantom pledge is only the visible portion of a bigger, fast-deteriorating Argentine problem. In July, Flybondi's problems reached a breaking point when the airline stated that former executives had constructed "a strategy plagued by irregularities of a fraudulent nature that affected shareholders and had consequences for workers and passengers." The airline "reserves the right to take legal action for the damage done," Flybondi said on July 15. COC Global Enterprise, in its own statement that day, said the airline was "in a terminal situation, three days from bankruptcy" at the moment COC took over as the leading shareholder.

Why It Matters

Argentina's aviation regulator approved Flybondi's recovery plan on Aug. 5, while Brazil told the airline to stop selling tickets. The fleet renewal Scatturice promised is crucial because Flybondi's newest plane is more than 15 years old and only a small number of its aircraft have been flying recently. With no confirmed Boeing or Airbus order and only $70 million reported from COC Global Enterprise, the gap between the promised $1.7 billion and what has actually been delivered remains wide.

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