Air Nostrum (YW, Valencia Manises) has acquired a minority 40% shareholding in Argentine domestic operator Sol Líneas Aéreas (Rosario Islas Malvinas) having reached an agreement with the airline's owner, Transatlántica, last week.

"The entry of Air Nostrum will allow us to move forward with the expansion of the fleet," Sol's Vice President Juan Nyffenegger told La Nacion newspaper. "This year we are adding three CRJ200s and in the first half of 2016 we expect to add three more."

Sol has already begun Bombardier Aerospace twinjet operations with plans to use its first aircraft of the type - LV-GIH (cn 7915) - to add routes along the Argentine Atlantic coast as well as to the Uruguayan city of Punta del Este this summer.

For its part, Air Nostrum, which operates Iberia Regional services on behalf of Iberia (IB, Madrid Barajas), is also involved in a project in Paraguay where it has partnered Amaszonas (Z8, La Paz El Alto) and a consortium of Paraguayan investors to launch Amaszonas Paraguay (Asuncion). The start-up has already commenced domestic operations using another Air Nostrum CRJ200 - EC-ITU (cn 7866).