Argentina’s Milei threatens to privatize national airline following disruptions by strikers

Argentina President Javier Milei’s administration is in “talks” with private aviation companies discussing the possibility of them stepping in to run national airline Aerolíneas Argentinas, Presidential Spokesperson Manuel Adorni announced on Thursday.

Idle Aerolíneas Argentinas workers at a Buenos Aires airport.

“Due to the persistent strikes […] the government is in talks with a number of private Latin American aviation companies to hand them Aerolíneas Argentinas’ operating activities,” Adorni said in his daily press conference. He said that the government would move forward with these negotiations if ongoing strikes over pay by pilots, baggage handlers, and other staff persisted.

According to a government official who spoke off the record to the Herald’s sister publication Ambito, negotiations are currently being held with “three or four companies” regarding domestic flights.

The announcement comes on the same day that 27 Argentine airports are affected by a new workers strike. Unlike last week’s strike involving pilots and crew members, this protest is led by civil workers (land staff, firefighters, assistance vehicle drivers, and signal operators) grouped in the National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC, by its Spanish initials).

According to a Transportation Secretariat communiqué, all airports are functioning with “adequate operational security” and operations are “100% normal.” At the time of writing, no major delays or cancellations have been reported.

Adorni, who did not specify what companies the Milei administration was in negotiations with, also announced that the Transportation Secretariat filed a complaint against Pablo Biró, head of the Airline Pilots Association union (APLA, for its Spanish initials). Aerolíneas Argentinas had already filed a complaint against Biró last week seeking monetary compensation for flight cancellations and delays caused by recent workers’ assemblies and strikes.

“Upon taking office, President Milei said he would eradicate roadblocks imposed by social movements that impeded people to move around freely,” Adorni stated. “Now we are going to eradicate union roadblocks and end the aviation caste.”

In the first version of his flagship Ley Bases bill, Milei vowed to privatize the company, which then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner had nationalized in 2008. However, the national airline was not included in the list of state-owned companies “subject to privatization” in the final version that Congress approved.

Air transportation was declared an essential service on Monday. This means that whenever aviation workers go on strike, they have to guarantee that at least 50% of flights operate. The longer the strike lasts, the higher the proportion of flights they are expected to run. Staff will also have to guarantee an air connection for locations that are only served by one route.
Critics have contested that this poses a violation of the right to protest.

The new rules came after a flurry of union assemblies and strikes in airports across the country have led to the cancellation and rescheduling of hundreds of flights, disrupting thousands of passengers’ journeys.
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Credit: Buenos Aires Herald