In 2025, Argentina amended key provisions of its 1967 Aeronautical Code (Law No. 17285) through Decree No. 338/2025 and Decree No. 378/2025. These reforms introduce changes affecting aircraft registrations, corporate governance, route authorizations, competition, the use of foreign-registered aircraft, aerial work authorizations, flight times, duty periods, minimum rest requirements, exceptions applicable to commercial civil aviation crews, and contractual domiciles.
Aircraft Registration and Operational Flexibility
Decree No. 338/2025 replaces article 42 of the Aeronautical Code to regulate in detail the conditions under which an aircraft may be conditionally registered with Argentine nationality. The new article 42 allows any aircraft to be conditionally registered in Argentina in the name of the buyer under any type of contract, executed domestically or internationally, under which the seller reserves title until the total purchase price is paid or until a specified term or condition is fulfilled. It also permits conditional registration in the name of the taker who becomes the aircraft’s operator under any type of contract, entered into in Argentina or abroad, even if ownership is not transferred. In all cases, conditional registration requires that the contract be recorded in the National Aircraft Registry and that the requirements set by the Aeronautical Code for being the owner of an Argentine aircraft are met.
Decree No. 338/2025 also replaces article 107 and sets out the conditions under which foreign‑registered aircraft may operate in Argentina. Under this provision, aircraft used in commercial air services and general aviation must be registered in Argentina. However, the National Aeronautical Authority may authorize the use of foreign‑registered aircraft and, in such cases, will seek reciprocity and dual‑oversight agreements on operational safety as permitted by law.
Decree No. 338/2025 introduces a new article 109 to replace a system of prior approval with a system of information filing. It establishes an obligation for air carriers operating regular domestic and international services to submit information on itineraries, frequencies, system capacity, and schedules to the competent authority, without a regime of prior approval for those elements. Before this amendment, itineraries, frequencies, capacity, and schedules corresponding to regular air transport services and tariffs in all cases had to be submitted for prior approval.
Requirements for Aviation Companies
The amendment to article 99 of the Aeronautical Code allows aviation companies to adopt any legally authorized corporate form, while preserving national control requirements. Accordingly, aviation companies must maintain a permanent domicile in Argentina, ensure domestic control and management, and guarantee that at least two-thirds of their directors or administrators have legal domicile in the country. Article 101 reinforces corporate transparency by requiring compliance with the Civil and Commercial Code’s bookkeeping rules and authorizing inspections and information requests by the competent authority.
New articles 103 and 104 regulate how authorizations to operate air transport services are structured and how those services are offered in a nonexclusive, competitive market. Article 103 regulates the scope, duration, and basic conditions of authorizations to operate regular and irregular air transport services within Argentina. It provides that authorizations to operate scheduled or nonscheduled air transport services may cover any combination of domestic routes for periods of up to 15 years, with automatic renewals. Operators must inform authorities of route operations. Article 104 explicitly states that operating a route does not confer exclusivity and mandates the promotion of fair competition and free market principles.
Article 131 modifies the framework for authorizing aerial work activities. To perform aerial work, operators must obtain prior authorization, demonstrate technical and economic capacity, and operate Argentine-registered or authorized foreign-registered aircraft, with the latter subject to dual-safety oversight agreements.
Decree No. 378/2025 approves the regulations implementing Title V of Argentina’s Aeronautical Code, setting annual and monthly flight time caps for flight crews along with maximum daily flight and duty limits that vary according to crew composition. It mandates minimum rest periods, generally not less than 10 consecutive hours, requires annual mandatory vacations, and provides for additional rest in long-haul or multi–time-zone operations. It also introduces differentiated rules for scheduled and nonscheduled air transport and allows operators to implement fatigue risk management systems, subject to oversight by the competent authority. While the decree permits limited, documented exceptions to maximum time limits in defined operational, emergency, rescue, or national defense circumstances, such deviations are constrained by quantitative thresholds and reporting obligations.
Repealed and Amended Provisions
Decree No. 338/2025 repeals article 106, which had required flight crews performing aeronautical functions on Argentine aircraft to be Argentine (with limited exceptions) and subject to Argentine labor law wherever the contract was performed. In addition, it repealed article 111, which had granted the national state a right to acquire, at market price, assets directly assigned to air transport services upon the normal or early termination of a company’s activities.
In addition to changing aviation-specific rules, the decree also amends article 75 of the Civil and Commercial Code to allow contracting parties to designate an electronic domicile — a formal digital address— for the exercise of contractual rights and obligations, where notifications, communications, and summons are deemed validly received.
Additionally, Decree No. 378/2025 repeals Decree No. 877 of 2021 that approved the previous regulation implementing Title V of Argentina’s Aeronautical Code.
Perspectives on the Aeronautical Amendments
The government and national and specialized media have generated broad coverage of the amendments introduced by Decree No. 338/2025 and Decree No. 378/2025, with most sources emphasizing that the core objectives of the reform are deregulation, the opening of markets, and administrative simplification.
The executive branch of the government said the reform represents a deliberate effort to modernize an aviation framework that has remained largely unchanged for more than five decades. Moreover, it is an attempt to reduce bureaucratic burdens and grant greater operational freedom to the aviation sector, while maintaining safety oversight through the National Civil Aviation Administration.
According to the national government, the amendments align with Argentina’s Open Skies Policy. They are also intended to facilitate the entry to the market of new airlines, ground handling operators, and airport service providers, ultimately improving connectivity and passenger choice without compromising operational safety.
Minister of Deregulation Federico Sturzenegger stated that eliminating route-by-route approvals and allowing foreign crews on domestic segments could significantly reduce costs and improve service availability, especially for combined domestic and international operations.
News platforms covering regulatory and economic policy echoed the government’s position that the reform prioritizes efficiency and competitiveness. They emphasized the expected economic effects of deregulation, particularly lower operating costs, increased competition, and greater route flexibility.
Trade unions representing pilots, cabin crew, air traffic services, and technical personnel have strongly criticized Decree No. 378/2025, arguing that the expansion of allowable flight hours, reduction of mandatory rest periods, shorter vacation entitlements, and the exclusion of certain waiting and transfer times from duty calculations undermine operational safety and further weaken working conditions. According to these unions, the measure was adopted hastily, without sufficient consultation or the systemic risk analysis required by international standards. Moreover, they say it reflects a broader policy orientation favoring deregulation, market liberalization, and increased foreign participation at the expense of safety oversight, labor protections, and the traditional role of the state in civil aviation. These objections have led to protests, threats of strikes, and warnings that the new regime could expose the government to civil and criminal liability in the event of accidents, while raising wage concerns and labor instability in the sector.
Stephania Alvarez, Law Library of Congress
January 14, 2026
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