A surplus of call centers and planes that are not enough to receive everyone

Argentine Airlines has 59 international flights canceledOnly for the next 13 days. This, not to mention winter vacation trips to New Yorkscheduled for July 19. Airlines is the most powerful case of forced cancellation by all airlines at this time, after the government’s decision to limit the daily number of passengers who can reach Ezeiza airport from 2,000 to 600 (70%).

Among the affected destinations, Miami is number one: only in Argentine Airlines 30 flights canceled (15 External and 15 Off), only between Monday and July 11th. Of the 45 international flights it had scheduled (and sold out) for the next 13 days, Aerolineas canceled a total of 30. To these cancellations we must add those of US airlines, Not yet reported. The question everyone is trying to solve is how to accommodate everyone On the way back home.

“A passenger who did not board the plane after being informed that his ticket is open, can even request a refund,” they told Aerolineas. “What is resolved in these hours is How do you make them come back? “Those who traveled during these two weeks,” they added at the state airline.

Restricting passenger entry seeks to contain the delta variant of Covid-19. But among the tourism agencies and the airlines themselves, a question circulated on Monday morning that quickly spread in WhatsApp conversations: “2000 people per day equals 14,000 people per week. Isn’t it in the Argentine state?” Tools and people To effectively track 14,000 people a week? “That was a question that was not without irony.

“The call center is very full,” was the curt response from an airline manager, when asked about the demands of passengers. The domestic airline raised the number of its flights to the United States to ten per week, but it also had to cancel flights to Santiago de Chile, Asuncion, San Pablo and Lima, among other destinations. At the foreign airlines, Monday morning, they were reeling from one flight cancellation after another.

to complete He had requested permission to implement 45 days in the first two weeks of next month. As of Monday noon, only one, Lima, was allowed by the National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC) on July 12. “We are waiting for what will happen to the ordered flights to Chile and Brazil,” they said at the Chilean capital airline.

Lufthansa He has been traveling to Argentina only twice a week since the beginning of April, when restrictions due to the second wave of Covid began. Now ANAC has allowed them only one flight per week, which will take off from Ezeiza to Frankfurt on July 3 and 10. “We have requested two more flights in the first two weeks of the month, but they have not been granted,” said Corina Hansch, director of the Argentine branch of the German airline.

On American Airlines At the moment they don’t have a clean slate of how many of their flights will be cancelled. It is the American airline that has landed the most in Ezeiza, behind Argentine Airlines: between 11 and 12 weekly flights from Miami and Dallas. “At the moment there is no news,” they said of the company that has 500 employees in Argentina. So far, the only concrete thing is that an American plane was supposed to leave on Wednesday for the United States have been cancelled.

Airlines have been selling tickets with the current scheme since April, when the government implemented a quota of no more than 2,000 people per day among all arrivals to Ezeiza. But after the administrative decision issued on Saturday, which limits the daily limit for passengers on international flights to 600, an expected amount has been established on all airlines. bottleneck.

Even Lufthansa, the airline that sends the only Jumbo jet to land in Ezeiza (364 seats, between tourist, commercial and first), has reported problems rescheduling its passengers. “The planes were already full, so with these new restrictions Everything becomes more complicatedHanish added.

All cameras that collect foreign airlines from domestic I swear international that is itThey asked the government to hold an “urgent” meeting to find out the criteria by which this quota of 600 passengers per day is distributed to the various companies. Also, as indicated in their statements, to suggest alternative measures To restrict the number of passengers.

Until now, You did not get a response from the government Everything indicates that they will not own it. With the International Air Transport Association There will be no meeting “Not for nothing against IATA, but because the procedures are being implemented as ordered by the administrative decision. The dialogue between ANAC and each of the companies, due to the operational work of adapting the flights,” government sources said.