This Friday, a new strike by Aerolíneas Argentinas will leave thousands of passengers unable to fly. This is the calculation already made by the national airline: 37,000 affected on 300 flightsHere is a guide on what those who should do fly between this Friday and Saturday.
This Wednesday, the aeronautical unions decided to take a strike. The protest is called the Association of Airline Pilots (APLA) and the Argentine Association of Flight Attendants (AAA).
After an assembly, the Kirchnerist unionist Pablo Biró announced a “24-hour active strike” because the Government “does not listen to the genuine demands of the workers, who are fighting to recover the purchasing power that was lost to us since they took office.”
Although the strike is currently being carried out by unions that bring together Aerolíneas Argentinas employees, assemblies are planned at their workplaces by the Union of Senior and Professional Personnel of Commercial Aerospace Companies (UPSA) and the Association of Aeronautical Personnel (APA), which could affect the Intercargo servicewhich is also used by other companies.
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A new strike will be carried out by aeronautical workers that will affect Aerolíneas Argentinas flights.
Until when is the Aerolíneas Argentinas strike?
The strike called by APLA and UALA will begin this Friday at 12 and will last for 24 hours, until noon on Saturday.
According to sources from Aerolíneas Argentinas, Clarionthis is particularly a busy weekend for two reasons.
Many private schools are beginning the so-called spring weeka week of vacation in September, so there are many families who will take advantage of these days to travel for tourism.
In addition, we are in the middle of the high season for student tourism, which means there are also many students traveling to and from Bariloche on graduation trips.
In an estimated calculation, this Saturday There would be 10% more flights compared to a normal weekday.
Which flights and which airports are affected by the strike?
As the measure includes both domestic and international pilots, All Aerolíneas operations will be affectedso there will be no flights leaving from Aeroparque Metropolitano and Ezeiza, but also from the rest of the country’s airports or even from abroad where there were departures during the strike hours.
According to the company’s estimates, there are a total of Some 300 flights were scheduled to carry 37,000 passengers.However, AA spokespeople clarified that this does not mean that they will not travel because they are working on a plan to relocate them and additional flights will be added to the original schedule, as already happened during last week’s strike.
What Aerolíneas Argentinas passengers have to do
Aerolíneas reported that throughout Thursday they will be working on reorganizing schedules. They admitted that there are flights that will have to be cancelled, others will have their schedules moved and new ones will also be created. special flights (outside the schedule), “a mix of things to try to impact passengers as little as possible,” the company said, and clarified that passengers will be notified of the changes.
Those who want to change their tickets can now do so. without any cost or penalty directly in the self-management portal https://www.aerolineas.com.ar/autogestion-de-cambiosalthough the additional flights that will be added during the day are not yet available. The contact center is 11-5199-3555 and it is also possible to contact us via WhatsApp from Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at +54-911-4940-4798.
What will happen with Flybondi and JetSmart?
Although in response to the query Clarion Both Flybondi and JetSmart said that their operations would not be affected by the measures, one of these companies decided to move its operations from Aeroparque to the Ezeiza international airport.
It is about Flybondwhich will transfer all flights that were to depart and arrive at the metropolitan terminal between Friday at 12 and Saturday at noon. This is because they expect there will be problems with the service of Intercargo, the state company that is in charge of the ramp service and whose workers are part of the Association of Aeronautical Personnel (APA), which has already announced assemblies for this Friday.
“This adaptation will impact more than 15,000 passengers and is possible because the airline has self-provision of ramp services at this airport,” the low-cost company reported.
Both Flybondi and JetSmart shared the contact information for any queries from its passengers.
The contact number of JetSmart It is 11-2206-7799, but they indicated that passengers can check the status of their flight without having to call a call center at the link https://jetsmart.com/ar/es/estado-de-vuelo.
In Flybondthe flight status can also be checked online at and the customer service line is 0810-555-3592.
The aeronautical conflict intensifies
He aeronautical conflict The strike has been getting worse in recent weeks. This Tuesday, the Intercargo workers’ assemblies in terminals across the country were a covert strike that affected terminals throughout the country, as has been happening with the APA and APLA assemblies, which are actually covert strikes because they disable operations. On Friday, August 30, Aerolíneas and Flybondi had moved their flights to Ezeiza to avoid being affected by the assemblies, but even so, there were 7,500 passengers who were unable to travel.
A week later, on Friday, September 6, APLA directly launched a strike that, despite having been announced in advance, was still brutal: more than 15,000 passengers were affected on 150 flights. Despite the fact that Aerolíneas added 14 unscheduled departures, there were long queues, bad moods and passengers who directly suspended their trips due to complications.
Hours after the strike, the Government decided to declare the essentiality of public and private aeronautical, civil, commercial aeronautical activity throughout the national territory. “We are going to comply with all the regulations required by the International Labor Organization (ILO) to move forward with this regulation, but We are going to apply it“, said sources from the Ministry of Human Capital.
The aeronautical unions counterattacked and assured that if the Government goes ahead with the declaration of essentiality, it would compromise “the administrative and criminal responsibility of the officials who participate in it.” According to the APA, APLA, UPSA and AAA in a statement, “transportation It is already regulated as a public service of transcendental importanceunder the conditions established by the norm, in accordance with the regulations of the right to strike.”
This week, meanwhile, 20 PRO deputies presented a new bill to Congress for the privatization of Aerolíneas Argentinas in line with what Javier Lanari, the Undersecretary of Press of the Nation, ratified on Friday. “The privatization of Aerolíneas would be an act of social justice. With all the Argentines who support it with taxes. And with the clients who support millionaire unionists,” he wrote on the social network X .
But the issue was not limited to discourse. Also through a statement, this Tuesday Aerolíneas Argentinas reported that it will move forward with a lawsuit against the pilots and crew unions for “the damages caused” after the wild strike on Friday 6th. In that sense, it indicated, it will also initiate Actions to remove Pablo Biró from the board of directors of the pilots’ union.
The flag carrier pointed to Biró (pilots) and Juan Pablo Brey (crew) as responsible for the “abusive and illegal” measure due to the information meetings that caused the company “losses of more than two million dollarsmainly due to the loss of profits from the operation and the claims of affected passengers.”
Also on Tuesday, in radio statements, Aerolíneas president Fabián Lombardo said that “international companies” called him to “find out how the privatization of the flagship airline is going.”We are planning privatization based on what happened in the past. Today the industry has evolved a lot and the players who are buying or showing interest in Aerolíneas are commercial aviation groups, it is not that an agency is going to come,” said Lombardo.
Days earlier, Lombardo had also exposed, in radio statements, the salary conditions of Aerolíneas pilots. According to him, A pilot earns between 3 and 10 million pesosand the average salary is 5 million, and they have benefits such as guaranteed business class tickets for themselves and their family, equivalent to a turnover of 20 million dollars, and better transfer conditions than pilots from other companies.
