JetSMART CCO Victor Mejia on stage at Routes Americas 2025.
Fast-growing Latin American ULCC JetSMART anticipates adding more than 50 aircraft to its all-Airbus narrowbody fleet over the next six years.
The additional A321neos and A321XLRs will come from a large order that U.S.-based private equity company and parent Indigo Partners placed in 2021 and will take JetSMART’s fleet size from 44 to 100 by 2029, CCO Victor Mejia said this week at Routes Americas 2025 in Nassau & Paradise Island, Bahamas.
The Indigo Partners order, when signed at the Dubai Airshow in 2021, was for a mix of 255 additional A321neo-family aircraft and A321XLRs under a joint Indigo Partners agreement. At the time of signing, it allocated an additional 21 A321neos and two A321XLRs for JetSMART as well as converting some of the A320neos previously ordered for JetSMART to A321neos. The remaining narrowbodies in the order were earmarked for other ULCCs in Indigo’s portfolio: U.S.-based Frontier, Mexico-based Volaris and Hungary-based Wizz Air.
JetSMART is headquartered in Chile, where it launched service is 2017, and has subsidiary carriers with air operator certificates in Argentina, Colombia and Peru.
Mejia said the company is working “very close” with Airbus about the delivery schedule of the new Neos.
“We have to be close to [engine supplier] Pratt & Whitney and Airbus because of the Pratt & Whitney situation, but it’s not a dramatic situation. It won’t affect our growth plan, but things change from one year to another. There are challenges, but we are actively taking care of it,” he said.
Mejia said JetSMART sees itself as a key player in bringing service to people in South America who had not previously had air connectivity.
“We see ourselves getting to 100 million passengers by 2028,” he said, noting the airline has already carried 55 million people—10.6 million in 2024 alone—and operates to eight countries.
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