How much does jet fuel cost in Argentina?

The aviation fuel used by commercial jets is Jet A-1 (also called aerokerosene in Argentina), while piston aircraft use 100LL gasoline. Its price in Argentina is set by airport fueling operators, with YPF as the dominant supplier, and is published in dollars per liter. As an order of magnitude, in 2024 Jet A-1 was sold at the country's airports for between 0.8 and 1.1 dollars per liter for domestic flights, one of the highest levels in the region, compared with an international reference price of around 0.55 to 0.60 dollars per liter according to IATA's monitor (data as of December 2024).

The difference from the international market is explained by domestic taxes, by the logistics of a vast country with refineries concentrated in Buenos Aires province and in Luján de Cuyo, and by a market with little competition in fuel dispensing. International flights, by contrast, load fuel exempt from those taxes, so at Ezeiza the price for a foreign airline is closer to the regional reference. Argentine domestic airlines have for years pointed to the price of fuel as their main disadvantage against competitors from Brazil or Chile.

For an airline, fuel accounts for between 25% and 35% of operating costs. A Boeing 737-800 burns about 2,500 kg (a bit over 3,100 l) per flight hour: at one dollar per liter, a two-hour Buenos Aires–Bariloche flight consumes on the order of 6,000 dollars in fuel alone. That cost is passed on to the passenger, and its month-to-month variation is one of the reasons domestic fares change so much.