“We want to apologize to the passengers. They (the unions) are basing their argument on a matter of collective bargaining, They are asking for percentages that the Government cannot give. It is important to note that two of the unions accepted the increases. More than 30% of the employees are receiving the increase,” he said in a televised statement.
In addition, Lombardo revealed that the measure – scheduled from noon on Friday to 12 noon on Saturday – causes an irreparable loss for the companydenoting “a 20% drop in reservations in domestic traffic and more than 10% in international traffic.” And he stated that “the company does not have to cost Argentines a penny, that is what President Javier Milei asked us to do,” showing himself in line with the Government, as well as confirming the interest of ”foreign companies” in acquiring it.
Finally, he asserted that the dismissal of three pilots from that company “is not a capricious decision,” and placed the responsibility on the union. Airline Pilots Association (APLA) “which gave the directive that the transfer” of these workers “should not be carried out.”
The Government and its criticism of the pilots’ strike
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.
Source: Ambito
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