This is a list of largest airlines active in South America (beyond 100 thousand passengers/year). It is ranked by number of carried passengers.

By passengers carried (millions)

Notes * Includes

LAN Airlines LATAM Airlines Chile (formerly LAN Airlines and LAN-Chile) is an airline based in Santiago, Chile, one of the founders of LATAM Airlines Group, Latin America's largest airline holding company. The main hub is Arturo Merino Benítez International ...

and

TAM Airlines TAM may refer to: Biology * Thioacetamide, an organosulfur compound * Tumor-associated macrophage, a class of immune cells * Transparent Anatomical Manikin, an educational model Technology * Tanque Argentino Mediano, the main battle tank of Arge ...

. * Includes

Gol Transportes Aéreos Gol may refer to: Places * * Gol, Gilan, a village in Gilan Province, Iran * Gol, South Khorasan, a village in South Khorasan Province, Iran * Gol, Bukan, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Gol, Chaldoran, a village in West Azerbaij ...

and

VARIG VARIG (acronym for Viação Aérea RIo-Grandense, ''Rio Grandean Airways'') was the first airline founded in Brazil, in 1927. From 1965 until 1990, it was Brazil's leading airline, and virtually its only international one. In 2005, Varig went i ...

. * Includes

Avianca Colombia Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias del Continente Americano S.A.'', "Airways of the American Continent") is a Colombian airline. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it was initially registered under ...

Avianca Peru Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias del Continente Americano S.A.'', "Airways of the American Continent") is a Colombian airline. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it was initially registered unde ...

Avianca El Salvador Transportes Aereos del Continente Americano, (''Air Transports of the American Continent'', known and branded formerly as TACA International), operating as Avianca El Salvador, is an airline owned by Kingsland Holdings based in El Salvador. As ...

Avianca Costa Rica Avianca Costa Rica S.A., formerly known as LACSA (''Spanish: Lineas Aéreas Costarricenses S.A.''), minority owned by the Synergy Group, is the national airline of Costa Rica and is based in San José. It operates international scheduled servic ...

Avianca Ecuador Avianca Ecuador S.A. (formerly known as AeroGal) is an airline based in Quito, Ecuador. It operates passenger and cargo flights within Ecuador, between the mainland and the Galápagos Islands, and between Ecuador and Colombia (on behalf of Avianc ...

Avianca Nicaragua Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias del Continente Americano S.A.'', "Airways of the American Continent") is a Colombian airline. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it was initially registered unde ...

Avianca Honduras Isleña de Inversiones S.A. de C.V. branded Avianca Honduras was an regional airline based in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. It offered mostly scheduled and chartered passenger flights out of its hub at Ramón Villeda Morales International Airpo ...

and

Avianca Guatemala Aviateca S.A. branded Avianca Guatemala is a regional airline headquartered in Guatemala City. Aviateca was under government ownership and remained so until 1989 when it joined the Grupo TACA alliance of Central America and was privatized. It wa ...

. * Includes

Austral Líneas Aéreas Cielos del Sur S.A., operating as Austral Líneas Aéreas, more commonly known by its shortened name Austral, was a domestic airline of Argentina, the sister company of Aerolíneas Argentinas. It was the second-largest domestic scheduled airline ...

. * Includes

TRIP Linhas Aéreas TRIP Linhas Aéreas S/A (formerly Transporte Aéreo Regional do Interior Paulista) was a domestic regional airline based in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. According to the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC) between January an ...

. * Includes

JetSmart Argentina JetSmart Airlines S.A., styled as JetSMART, is an Argentine airline owned by ultra low-cost carrier JetSmart, itself owned by Indigo Partners, a firm that also has stakes in US-based Frontier Airlines, Mexico-based Volaris, and Hungary-based Wiz ...

and

Norwegian Air Argentina Norwegian Air Argentina S.A.U. was an Argentine low-cost airline. The airline operated Boeing 737-800 aircraft, with bases in Buenos Aires and Córdoba. All aircraft were registered in Argentina. On 4 December 2019, parent company Norwegian Ai ...

. * Includes VivaAir Colombia and

Viva Air Peru Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia * Viva Air Dominicana * VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company * Vi ...

. * Includes

Sky Airline Peru SKY Airline Perú, also known as SꓘY or SKY Peru, is an airline based in Lima, Peru and is the second largest airline in the Peruvian market. It is a subsidiary of Sky Airline, which is based in Chile. It operates scheduled domestic and interna ...

* Includes MAP Linhas Aéreas * Includes

Aerorepública Copa Airlines Colombia is a commercial passenger airline An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or al ...

and

Copa Airlines Colombia Copa Airlines Colombia is a commercial passenger airline founded and registered under the corporate name of AeroRepública S.A. in November 1992, and is the second airline in Colombia for international passengers carried after Avianca and the th ...

(subsidiary of

Copa Airlines Compañía Panameña de Aviación, S.A., (commonly referred to as Copa and branded simply as "Copa Airlines") is the flag carrier of Panama. It is headquartered in Panama City, Panama, with its main hub at Tocumen International Airport. Copa is ...

) Information was updated on May, 2022 Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay have no airline relevant to the South America market. Venezuela's information is not available

References

{{Reflist Countries (every airline but LATAM and Avianca)''
Argentina (ANAC)

Brazil (ANAC)

Bolivia (DGAC)

Chile (JAC)

Colombia (Aeronáutica Civil)

Ecuador (DGAC)

Paraguay (DINAC)Peru (MTC)
Airlines''
Avianca HoldingsLATAM Group

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

Airlines of South America Largest