We ran 6,780 AI queries across 4 platforms, 3 languages, and 7 markets to map the AI visibility landscape for 19 airlines operating Latin American routes.
Research Scope
LATAM Airlines dominates with a 73.7 visibility score and 24.5% share of voice. But the story is the language effect: Spanish-language queries return systematically higher scores for regional carriers than English or Portuguese queries for the same routes — a 4.6-point gap that compounds across millions of traveler searches. No airline in the study achieved top-3 status on all four platforms simultaneously, meaning AI is not one channel — it is four distinct recommendation environments, each requiring its own strategy.
Finding: LATAM Airlines leads the category with an avg visibility score of 73.7 and 24.5% share of voice — more than twice Avianca's 11.6%. Four of the top five airlines by visibility score are Latin American regional carriers. However, American Airlines (65.4) and Iberia (63.8) — both international carriers with limited LATAM network share — rank #5 and #6, outscoring Copa Airlines, GOL, Azul, and several regional full-service carriers.
Insight: Regional carriers have strong AI brand presence but not universal AI authority. The hypothesis that international carriers would dominate AI recommendations was only partially confirmed: regional carriers hold the top positions overall, but international carriers punch above their LATAM network weight — likely due to stronger English-language content authority and broader third-party citation coverage.
Implication: Any LATAM airline not actively monitoring its AI visibility is making commercial distribution decisions blind. The margin between #4 (Avianca, 66.6) and #5 (American Airlines, 65.4) is 1.2 points — a gap that can shift based on content changes in a matter of weeks.
Finding: Yes, but the effect is carrier-specific rather than uniform. The United States was the only market tested in all three languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese), providing the study's only controlled language comparison. Within the US market: English averaged 62.3, Spanish 65.2 (+2.9pp), and Portuguese 66.3 (+4.0pp). Counterintuitively, Portuguese outperforms Spanish in the US context. The bigger story is at the carrier level — airline language profiles vary dramatically. Aeromexico scores 53.6 in English but 72.4 in Spanish within the same US market (+18.8pp). Conversely, American Airlines scores 71.1 in English but drops to 63.0 in Spanish (-8.1pp). Iberia drops 14 points from English to Spanish. Brazilian carriers (GOL, Azul) score 11–12 points higher in Portuguese than in English. LATAM Airlines is the only carrier consistently Champion-tier across all three languages (71.4 / 73.8 / 72.1), which is a key reason it leads the overall ranking.
Insight: Each airline has a dominant-language score profile that mirrors its content authority distribution. AI platforms do not apply a universal language preference — they reflect the underlying citation and content landscape for each carrier by language. The 'language effect' is not about Spanish being universally better; it is about whether an airline's content authority is concentrated in the language a traveler is using. Airlines that have invested in Spanish-language content (Aeromexico, Volaris) surge in Spanish queries. Airlines that have not (American Airlines, Iberia) lose ground when travelers switch from English to Spanish within the same market.
Implication: Airlines cannot apply a single-language content strategy and expect consistent AI visibility. The first step is identifying each airline's dominant-language performance gap — which differs by carrier. Aeromexico needs English content depth. American Airlines needs Spanish content depth. GOL and Azul need to maintain Portuguese authority. LATAM Airlines' multilingual consistency is a replicable model, not an accident.
Finding: Significant platform divergence exists. ChatGPT (OpenAI) produces the highest average visibility scores for regional carriers and shows the largest first-position recommendation frequency. Perplexity shows the greatest citation-sensitivity — brands with thin third-party coverage score substantially lower on Perplexity than on ChatGPT, creating a systematic 10+ point gap for citation-light carriers. Google AI Overview and Gemini cluster between the two extremes. No airline achieves top-3 status on all four platforms simultaneously.
Insight: Each AI platform has a distinct recommendation personality for LATAM airlines. ChatGPT appears to weigh brand recognition more heavily; Perplexity weighs citation authority; Google AI Overview integrates Google Flights data, which introduces real-time pricing signals into recommendations. A brand invisible on Perplexity is missing a high-intent research audience. A brand weak on Google AI Overview may be losing travelers mid-booking-funnel.
Implication: A single-platform AI strategy is insufficient. Airlines must understand their visibility profile across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and Gemini independently — because optimization for one does not guarantee visibility on others.
Finding: The citation landscape is dominated by airline own-domains (latamairlines.com: 2,143 citations; avianca.com: 534; copaair.com: 541; aa.com: 444), OTA/metasearch platforms (Skyscanner: ~1,166 combined; edreams.es: 331; momondo.es: 331; expedia.com: 337), social/video platforms (YouTube: ~1,181; Instagram: 751; TikTok: 436), and aviation media (aviacionline.com: 458; a21.com.mx: 406; melhoresdestinos.com.br: 300). Wikipedia (es.wikipedia.org: 494) is the most-cited neutral encyclopedia source. Reddit appears 315 times. Most airlines' citation profiles are heavily weighted toward their own domains — meaning AI platforms cite the airline itself rather than independent sources endorsing it.
Insight: The most cited sources in this study are either the airlines' own websites or generic platform aggregators (Skyscanner, Expedia). True third-party editorial authority — the sources that tell AI 'this airline is good because an independent voice says so' — is thin across the board. The airlines with the widest earned citation profiles on independent aviation media, OTAs, and consumer review platforms hold a durable advantage that is difficult for competitors to replicate quickly.
Implication: Airlines' AI visibility strategies must expand beyond owned content. Earning placement on aviation media (aviacionline.com, a21.com.mx), OTA platforms (Skyscanner, Expedia, edreams), and Spanish-language travel publications is the primary citation-authority lever. Airlines with weak third-party citation profiles will systematically underperform on Perplexity — the platform most sensitive to citation quality.
Finding: LCCs hold approximately 38% of LATAM seat capacity but account for a smaller share of AI recommendation mentions. However, three LCCs (Volaris at 68.2, JetSMART at 63.3, SKY Airline at 62.9) outperform multiple full-service legacy carriers on visibility score. Volaris ranks #3 overall — above American Airlines, Iberia, Copa Airlines, GOL, and Azul. This is the study's primary paradox: the LCC segment as a whole underperforms on mention volume, but individual LCCs that have built strong Spanish-language content presence outperform full-service carriers with significantly larger networks.
Insight: The LCC paradox: market share does not predict AI recommendation share. Volaris's #3 ranking despite being a Mexico-focused ULCC — above American Airlines and Copa Airlines — demonstrates that AI visibility is determined by content authority, not network size. The LCCs that are invisible in AI recommendations (VivaAerobus at 61.7, several smaller regional carriers) are those with weaker web content and citation profiles, not those with smaller fleets.
Implication: For LCC marketing teams, this study is a revenue case for AI visibility investment. Volaris's ranking is proof that an LCC can outperform full-service legacy carriers in AI recommendations. The airlines currently in the bottom tier of this ranking — regardless of segment — have a clear, replicable path to improve: stronger route-specific content, earned OTA citations, and Spanish-language authority.
Ranked by avg visibility score across all platforms, languages, and markets. Position-weighted: #1 = 100pts, #2 = 80pts, #3 = 60pts, #4 = 40pts, #5 = 20pts, beyond = 10pts.
Volaris ranks #3 overall — above American Airlines, Copa Airlines, GOL, and Azul — despite being a Mexico-focused ULCC with a fraction of their international network. This ranking reflects content authority on route-specific Spanish-language queries, not fleet size. Market share does not predict AI recommendation share.
Champion >70 · Mediocre 40–70 · Invisible <40 · Source: AIVO, 19 airlines tracked, March 2026
Within the same market, query language changes which airlines AI recommends — but the direction depends on the airline, not the language.
Methodology note: Each LATAM country market was queried in its dominant language only (CO/AR/MX/CL/PE in Spanish; BR in Portuguese). The United States was queried in all three languages (English, Spanish, and Portuguese), making it the only controlled language comparison in the study. All 'language effect' findings below are drawn from the US market controlled comparison unless otherwise noted. Aggregate language averages across the full study conflate country effects with language effects and are not reported here.
The US was the only market tested in all three languages. These figures are the most reliable measure of the language effect, holding market constant.
Portuguese (66.3) outperforms Spanish (65.2) outperforms English (62.3) within the US market. This is counterintuitive but explainable: US Portuguese queries target Brazilian route travelers, where LATAM Airlines, GOL, and Azul score strongly and appear frequently.
Avg visibility score by airline within the US market (the only controlled language comparison). Sorted by Spanish–English gap. Data from US market only — all three languages.
Cells with fewer than 30 mentions are directional only.
Aeromexico scores 53.6 in English but 72.4 in Spanish within the same US market — an 18.8-point language gap. Conversely, American Airlines scores 71.1 in English and drops to 63.0 in Spanish (-8.1pp). These are opposite directional effects on the same routes, driven entirely by where each airline has concentrated its content authority. AI is not biased toward Spanish — it reflects the underlying content distribution of each brand.
The only carrier in the study with Champion-tier scores across all three languages within the US market: English 71.4 / Spanish 73.8 / Portuguese 72.1. The 2.4pp spread across languages is the smallest of any airline in the study. This multilingual consistency is a key reason LATAM Airlines leads the overall ranking — it is not losing ground when travelers switch languages.
Avg visibility score by AI platform and query language — US market only (controlled comparison). Source: benchmark_study_brand_mentions × benchmark_study_results, US market, all airlines.
These are the only platform × language figures controlled for country. Previously reported figures (e.g., 'Perplexity + Portuguese = 56.8') mixed country and language effects and are superseded by this data.
Perplexity shows the largest language sensitivity for Spanish (+6.9pp EN→ES within US). Airlines with strong Spanish citation coverage on aviation media and OTAs gain disproportionately on Perplexity when queried in Spanish.
Google AI Overview is language-neutral for English vs Spanish — it produces identical avg scores (68.7) regardless of query language, suggesting its recommendation logic is based on structured flight data rather than language-specific content.
Gemini in English (54.7) scores 13.7 points lower than Google AI Overview in English (68.7) for the same US market queries — a striking platform divergence that suggests Gemini's Google Knowledge Graph entity quality has a larger impact than content language for English-language airline queries.
Each platform has a distinct recommendation personality for LATAM airlines. No airline achieved top-3 status on all four platforms simultaneously.
Highest average visibility scores for regional LATAM carriers; most brand-recognition sensitive; highest first-position recommendation frequency for established brands.
Brand-recognition weighted — established carriers score highest
Integrates Google Flights real-time data; triggers on ~25–29% of route queries in LATAM markets; produces citation-rich responses citing aviation media and OTAs.
Booking-funnel integrated — Google Flights data appears in responses
Fastest-growing platform in Chile (11%) and Mexico (10%); strongest Android/Google ecosystem integration; recommendation set closest to Google AI Overview but with higher platform variance.
Google ecosystem integrated — entity graph and Search correlation visible
Most citation-sensitive platform in the study — airlines with thin third-party coverage score 8–12 points lower on Perplexity than on ChatGPT. Produces most structured, source-cited airline recommendations.
Citation authority weighted — third-party coverage determines positioning
Perplexity produces the highest platform divergence in the study — ranking airlines differently from ChatGPT by the widest margin. The reason is structural: Perplexity's recommendation algorithm is most sensitive to third-party citation density. Airlines with rich earned coverage on aviation media, OTAs, and independent travel publications score 8–12 points higher on Perplexity than on ChatGPT. Airlines relying primarily on their own website content see the reverse.
Which third-party sources do AI platforms cite when recommending LATAM airlines — and what does citation authority actually look like?
Across 41,756 citations in this study, the dominant pattern is airlines citing themselves — not independent sources endorsing them. Avianca has 534 citations, all pointing to its own domain — just 1.3% of all citations in the study, with zero third-party editorial presence. LATAM Airlines benefits from 2,143+ own-domain citations, but also from broader editorial coverage. The difference between an airline at 73.7 and one at 66.6 is not brand recognition — it is the depth of independent citation authority.
Most-cited domain in the study. LATAM Airlines' own domain cited by all four platforms across all three languages.
Route guide videos, airline review content, and travel vlogs are heavily cited across all platforms.
Most-cited OTA/metasearch domain group. Spanish-language Skyscanner variants (skyscanner.es) outperform the .com version, consistent with the language effect finding.
Google Flights integration — cited primarily by Google AI Overview and Gemini where real-time pricing data is pulled in.
Cited primarily by Google AI Overview from airline official accounts and travel influencer content.
Copa Airlines has the second-largest own-domain citation presence after LATAM.
Spanish Wikipedia is the primary neutral encyclopedia source. en.wikipedia.org (168) and pt.wikipedia.org (162) also appear — all three Wikipedia language versions are cited across the study.
Avianca's 534 citations represent 1.3% of all 41,756 study citations — and all are self-referential (own domain only). No third-party editorial source cites Avianca in this dataset.
Most-cited independent aviation media source. Leading Spanish-language aviation news outlet with cross-platform citation authority.
American Airlines has a stronger own-domain citation profile than Avianca despite a smaller LATAM network — reflecting US-market English content depth.
Short-form travel content cited by Google AI Overview. Airline route and travel tip content on TikTok is increasingly referenced in AI responses.
Cited by Google AI Overview from airline business pages and travel community groups.
Only domain in the study cited by all four AI platforms with 100+ citations. Mexican aviation news site with exceptional cross-platform authority.
UK-based airline review and booking site. High citation count concentrated on Perplexity, which values its structured airline comparison content.
Aeromexico's own domain — cited by all four platforms, reflecting Mexico-market Spanish content depth.
Major Spanish-language news platform. One of the few mainstream news publishers regularly cited for airline content in this study.
Major Brazilian trade travel publication. The primary Portuguese-language aviation trade media in the citation data — airlines with coverage here have a Brazil-market citation advantage.
English-language aviation news site. The most-cited English-language independent aviation publication in the study — important for English-language query performance.
Combined Spanish- and Portuguese-language OTA metasearch group. edreams (331), momondo.es (331), kayak.es (300), expedia.es (217), momondo.com.br (277). Airlines listed and reviewed on these platforms gain systematic citation authority in Spanish-language queries.
Brazil's leading travel deal and destination site. The most-cited Portuguese-language travel editorial source in the study. Cited across 2 languages, by 3 platforms.
Latin America's two largest OTAs (same company). Decolar dominates Brazil (Portuguese queries); Despegar operates across Spanish-speaking LATAM. Combined citation presence is an important regional authority signal.
Skytrax airline awards site — cited across languages as an authority source for airline quality rankings. Airlines with award recognition appear here and gain citation authority across all platforms.
Travel and aviation subreddits (r/flights, r/latinamerica, country-specific subreddits) appear in citation data. Primarily via ChatGPT and Perplexity.
The top 78 domains (those with 100+ citations each) account for 21,837 citations — 52.3% of the total. The remaining 2,023 domains share 19,919 citations. This long tail includes country-specific aviation blogs, regional OTAs (Kayak.com.br, Skyscanner.pt, momondo.com.pe), local travel publications (Clarin.com, La Tercera, InforBae), and route-specific community sites. Airlines that earn citation breadth across this long tail compound their AI visibility advantage in ways that the top-domain view does not fully capture.
The 41,756-citation ecosystem reveals a more complex picture than the top domains alone suggest. The long tail is real: 2,023 domains each account for fewer than 100 citations each, collectively representing 47.7% of all citations. This means AI platforms draw from an extremely broad source base — the top 78 domains cover just 52.3%. Airlines that invest in citation breadth across many second-tier sources (country-specific aviation blogs, regional OTAs, local travel media) compound their advantage in ways that headline citation counts do not fully capture. The single most structurally significant finding remains: Avianca's 534 citations are 100% self-referential (1.3% of total citations), all pointing to avianca.com. In a 41,756-citation ecosystem, earning even 200 citations on panrotas.com.br, simpleflying.com, and aviacionline.com would represent a meaningful structural shift.
AI visibility scores vary significantly by country — and the gaps are not explained by airline network size or passenger volume alone.
Highest average scores in the study. Avianca's home market — Spanish content depth and local editorial coverage drive strong performance for all regional carriers serving Colombian routes.
Mexico-specific carriers (Aeromexico, Volaris) perform well; Mexico is the second-largest AI market in LATAM by user volume, making AI visibility particularly valuable here.
Argentina is the #3 AI-adopting country globally by adoption velocity. Open-skies policy driving route growth creates a contested AI recommendation environment.
Chile's LCCs (SKY, JetSMART) perform strongly relative to full-service competitors — driven by strong Spanish-language content presence on domestic and regional routes.
Lima's new international airport and Machu Picchu tourism drive high query volume. Opportunity for carriers with strong Peru-specific route content.
The only market tested in all three languages — English (62.3), Spanish (65.2), Portuguese (66.3). English advantages international carriers (American Airlines scores 71.1 in English, 63.0 in Spanish). Spanish advantages Mexico/Central America carriers. Portuguese queries reflect Brazilian diaspora route demand.
Portuguese-only market. GOL and Azul dominate Brazilian domestic route queries; LATAM Airlines also strong. International carriers and non-Brazilian regional carriers significantly underperform. The previously reported 'lowest market' score was a data error — BR actual avg is 64.9, not 60.4.
Brazil is the #1 country globally in ChatGPT adoption velocity — yet it produces the lowest average AI visibility scores in this study (60.4). The gap is driven by thin Portuguese-language aviation editorial content in the citation ecosystem. For airlines serving Brazilian routes, this is a first-mover opportunity: the content and citation landscape is underdeveloped, and the AI user base is the fastest-growing in the region.
Five actionable implications from the study — ranked by immediacy and impact.
ChatGPT drove 20× more traffic to airline websites in just six months. LATAM markets — Brazil #1, Argentina #3, Mexico #5 globally in AI adoption velocity — are the world's fastest-growing AI user base. Airlines not measuring their AI visibility are making distribution decisions blind in the region's fastest-growing discovery channel.
Establish a baseline AI visibility measurement program immediately. Query your top 10 routes across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and Gemini in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. You cannot optimize what you haven't measured.
Spanish-language queries return 4.6+ points higher visibility scores than English queries for the same routes. This gap compounds across millions of traveler queries in Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Airlines optimizing exclusively in English are building AI visibility for their smallest audience segment.
Audit your route-specific content by language. Prioritize Spanish-language content for the top 20 routes in your network before creating additional English content. The ROI on Spanish-language AI visibility is demonstrably higher in LATAM markets.
Perplexity users are high-intent researchers who compare before booking. Airlines with thin third-party citation coverage score 8–12 points lower on Perplexity than on ChatGPT. The study's citation data shows that aviation media (aviacionline.com, a21.com.mx), OTAs (Skyscanner, edreams, momondo), and Spanish-language travel publications are the primary citation authority drivers.
Map your editorial citation footprint on aviacionline.com, a21.com.mx, Skyscanner, edreams.es, and momondo.es. These five domains alone account for the majority of independent citation authority for airlines in this study. Earned placement here directly improves AI visibility on Perplexity.
Volaris ranks #3 overall — above American Airlines, Copa Airlines, GOL, and Azul — despite being a Mexico-focused ULCC. This ranking is not driven by network size. It reflects content authority on route-specific queries in Mexico and Spanish-language markets. The carriers currently invisible in AI recommendations have a clear, replicable path to improve.
LCC marketing leaders: AI visibility is a budget-justified investment. Volaris's #3 ranking is proof of concept. The airlines in the bottom quartile of this study are not there because of fleet size — they're there because of content gaps that can be closed in 90 days with focused effort.
No airline in this study achieved top-3 rankings on all four AI platforms simultaneously. ChatGPT, Google AI Overview, Gemini, and Perplexity each have a distinct recommendation personality. An airline optimizing for one platform while ignoring others is leaving measurable visibility — and commercial opportunity — on the table.
Build a platform-specific AI visibility tracking cadence. Measure separately: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overview, and Gemini. The carriers that understand their platform-specific gaps will outperform those treating AI as a monolithic channel.
6,780 AI responses · 4 platforms · 3 languages · 7 markets · March 17–18, 2026
565 unique prompts across route-based discovery, destination discovery, persona segmentation, and head-to-head comparison. 6,780 total AI responses collected.
ChatGPT (OpenAI), Google AI Overview, Gemini, and Perplexity — the four dominant consumer-facing AI platforms in LATAM markets based on Feb 2026 StatCounter data.
Queries executed in Spanish (Latin American standard), Brazilian Portuguese, and English. Each BASE module query exists as three semantic equivalents to enable clean language comparison.
Seven markets: Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and the US (English and Spanish sessions). Markets selected to cover ~85% of LATAM air passenger volume.
3 runs per prompt with at least one 24-hour separation between runs. Removes ~83% of single-run response variance noise. Overall consistency rate: ~71%.
Position-weighted: 1st = 100pts, 2nd = 80pts, 3rd = 60pts, 4th = 40pts, 5th = 20pts, beyond = 10pts. Classification: Champion >70, Mediocre 40–70, Invisible <40.
565 unique prompts covering route-based discovery, destination discovery, traveler persona segmentation, and head-to-head brand comparisons. Queries executed in three languages across seven markets. Position-weighted visibility scoring: 1st = 100pts, 2nd = 80pts, 3rd = 60pts, 4th = 40pts, 5th = 20pts, >5th = 10pts. Share of Voice calculated across all airline mentions in unbranded queries. Citation analysis covers 41,756 total citations across 2,101 unique domains extracted from 6,493 responses (96% of all responses contained at least one citation). Average 6.4 citations per response. Confidence: High on Category Leadership and Language Effect findings (n ≥ 30 per cell). Medium on individual market × platform intersections.
Get a personalized analysis of how your brand performs across ChatGPT, Google AI, and Perplexity— plus actionable recommendations to improve your visibility.