The brutal 24-hour strike by the aeronautical sector will leave more than 37,000 people without flights

The state-owned company indicated that users are being informed of the situation so that they can change their flights “free of charge” and that they are trying to “relocate and re-accommodate” passengers in light of the contingency, although the number of flights that will be cancelled has not yet been determined.

The strike, so far, will only be carried out by the Airline Pilots Association (APLA) and the Argentine Association of Flight Attendants (AAA), Therefore, only the services of the national airline will be affected, to the point that it is most likely that all flights between 12 noon on Friday and 12 noon on Saturday will be cancelled.

For now The Aeronautical Personnel Association (APA) will not join the strike, which covers Intercargo workers, which would mean that ramp services at both Aeroparque and Ezeiza would not be affected.

However, the union has not confirmed what attitude it will take and airport sources are speculating that they may hold the so-called “information meetings” during the hours in which the strike by the other two unions is taking place.

Given this situation, Flybondi The company will move its operations from midday until Saturday to Ezeiza International Airport, where it has its own ramp service, just like the international American Airlines. The company said that “this adaptation impacts more than 15,000 passengers, and is possible because the airline has its own ramp service at that airport.”

In the case of Jetsmartthe normality of its services will depend on the decision taken by the employees grouped in APA.

Meanwhile, sources of Aerolíneas Argentinas explained that within the actions that are being analyzed to face the effects of the strikethere is a provision for additional services after the strike, in order to evacuate the huge number of passengers who will be unable to travel at the scheduled times.

The company has already begun to inform its passengers via email about the situation, warning them that if their flight falls within the time slot of the strike, it is very likely that it will be cancelled, so they are given the option of changing the day and time at no charge.

The Secretary of Transportation, Franco Mogetta, came out to criticize the strike called by the aeronautical workers and stated that “What bothers the union class is that we are ending their privileges.”

The official warned in statements to Radio Rivadavia that “these unions that screw up people’s lives will be stripped of their legal status.” He pointed out that “we are implementing mechanisms with the Ministry of Labor to establish minimum services so that people can travel, in addition to carrying out sanctions that will not only be economic. The APA union was already fined 160 million pesos in February, and now we are going to ask for the legal status of these unions to be stripped,” he added.

“With these measures, these unions are going to ruin the airline, they want to take over the company and then blame the government. It’s incredible, they are destroying the company that they claim to defend but people already know who the real culprits are,” said Mogetta.

Statement from Aerolíneas Argentinas

The strike at Aerolíneas Argentinas led by Pablo Biró (APLA, pilots) and Juan Pablo Brey (AAA, crew) caused 319 cancellations and will affect more than 37 thousand passengers, as confirmed by the company itself.

The company estimates that the economic cost of this measure will exceed 2.5 million dollars, due to the loss of sales and fines, compensation, accommodation, transfers, meals and other expenses resulting from direct damage to passengers.

Of the total number of people affected, some 28,000 had planned trips within the country, another 5,500 to regional destinations, and the remaining 3,500 flights to the Caribbean, the United States and Europe.

The statement said that since the announcement of the measure, the company has made every effort to modify its schedule in the most efficient way possible, within the restrictions imposed by the unions themselves, to mitigate the damage that this strike will cause to our passengers.

In this regard, they pointed out that flights were rescheduled, bringing forward and delaying departures outside the time limit of the measure, and special flights were created to redistribute affected traffic. In addition, work was done with the Aerolíneas Argentinas network of alliances to provide other alternatives for people in transit.

“We deeply regret the inconvenience caused by this untimely, abusive and out of context strike promoted by union leaders in an irresponsible manner. Aerolíneas Argentinas will continue working to continue offering a quality, reliable and safe service to its passengers,” says the document released last night.

Javier Milei signed the decree to declare commercial aviation activity “essential” and limit aeronautical strikes

The President Javier Milei has already signed the decree declaring as “essential service” to the commercial aviation activity, with which it seeks to limit strikes and assemblies in the sector. In parallel, the aeronautical unions They called for a 24-hour strike starting this Friday at Aerolíneas Argentinas due to a wage disputeWhat implications will the regulatory change have?

The measure will regulate the provisions of the mega Decree 70/23 published in December of last year, weeks after the arrival of the libertarian to the Casa Rosada, in which the inclusion of the commercial aviation sector is enabled within the rating as “essential” for ensure coverage of the service and prevent paralysis due to forceful measures.

The news was announced on Thursday night by the Minister of Deregulation and State Transformation, Federico Sturzenegger, who reported on his social networks: “President Javier Milei has just signed the regulations of article 182 of DNU 70/23 with the guidelines applicable to the provision of essential commercial civil aeronautics services. Tomorrow we will give more details…”