hundrets of Flights have been canceled or postponed this Wednesday in Argentina due to a 24-hour strike by aviation unions demanding higher salaries.
The Association of Aeronautical Personnel (APA), Airline Pilots (APLA) and the Union of Senior and Professional Personnel of Aerocommercial Companies (UPSA) went on strike after they considered the 12% salary adjustment offer submitted by the companies to be insufficient to combat inflation in January closed at 20.6% and the annual rate exceeded 254%.
In the case of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the local airline, the strike forced the rescheduling of 330 flights, affecting “approximately 24,000 passengers, of which 18,000 are domestic, 3,000 are regional and another 3,000 are international.” a statement.
“We had a flight to Santiago (from Chile) today with Aerolíneas Argentina, we arrived here and nothing,” Leonardo Torres, a Chilean tourist looking for information at the airfield in the Argentine capital, told AFP. “Last night they emailed us at half past ten, but we are outside and don’t know what to do now,” he added.
The unions said companies were given enough notice of the strike to reschedule flights, which most companies did.
“They told us that there was a strike and that no flights would take off,” said Angela Aliaga, a Bolivian tourist who was due to leave this Wednesday. “They gave us a code to communicate with Aerolíneas Argentinas. We tried to communicate but couldn’t access that code, so we don’t know when we flew,” he said.
There is minimal activity at Ezeiza International Airport, on the southern outskirts of Buenos Aires, limited to airlines American Airlines and domestic airline FlyBondi, as they have their own staff for ground operations. AFP