Four million passengers managed to transport the “airlines” model low-cost”In the two years of operation that it had been in the country until the quarantine came into effect and the stoppage of the aero-commercial market.
And although all the activity is today mired in uncertainty, Jetsmart and Flybondi, the two airlines low-cost Based in the country, they assure that its continuity runs an extra danger associated with the official interest in complicating its continuity.
“At this point we already believe that the Covid-19 is an excuse for the national government not to define certain vital issues for us, and not even give us a valid interlocutor. The pandemic is barbaric so as not to make decisions, that things run, investors leave and Aerolineas Argentinas has a monopoly on the activity, ”said Estebam Tosutti, president of Flybondi.
His Jetsmart counterpart, Gonzalo Pérez Corral, agreed: “Without denying the impact of the pandemic, today we already believe that he gave the best excuse to make the transformation they believed would take years to complete in months.”
The heads of both airlines presented at a special meeting organized by the Córdoba Stock Exchange online. Manuel Tagle, president of the institution, defended the economic contribution of the low-cost to the regional economy and explained, at the opening of the meeting, the intention to help make his preaching echo.
“That the Central Region loses direct exits to the world implies less competitiveness. One infers that the departure from Latam had to do with the tone of the new Government. We want to defend private initiative, you are an option to develop and replace Latam, “said Tagle.
The reason for the anger
Flybondi and Jetsmart cannot operate today and are authorized like all airlines to sell tickets to fly from September 1. However, Pérez Correa assured that the enforcement authority has “not yet authorized any itinerary” since September.
Its model has more development on the domestic than international market, and for this reason they have been demanding (without success yet) the Nation to reactivate interprovincial flights without going through Buenos Aires. In this, they ask for the support of the governors.
“They are going to be the main victims of the loss of connectivity and the increasing dependence on Aerolineas Argentinas,” Pérez Correa warned, admitting that in Córdoba his preaching had not yet been echoed.
According to Tossutti, Flybondi helped generate $ 495 million in regional economies in its two-year term. Over 570 employees, it has 120 Cordoba.
The low-cost They assure that they are being doubly impacted by the current situation: to the crisis caused by the pandemic and the multiple lack of definitions of the national authorities and regulators of the activity, there are several fronts that affect them in a particular way.
One of them is the possibility that El Palomar airport will cease to be its base of operations. It turned out that the Argentine Airports 2000 concessionaire requested the cessation of the commercial activity at that station to the Regulatory Body of the National Airport System (Orsna), a request that had no official definition yet but was not rejected either.
The companies assure that if they are forced to move their flights to Ezeiza, their model becomes unfeasible. About the destination of Aeroparque, which is supposed to go into works until December, there is also no complete clarity. The fear of low-cost is that Aerolineas Argentinas monopolizes it as a base.
There, another serious pending is added for Jetsmart, which still has in Aeroparque the three aircraft of Norwegian (company that it acquired) but did not obtain the necessary authorizations to conserve the spaces and continue operating the routes from there once it returns the aircraft and the replace with your own, as included in the acquisition agreement.
“One of the reasons we bought the company was because of its structure in Aeroparque,” claimed Pérez Correa.
And the “hub” Córdoba?
Both managers underlined the attractiveness of Taravella as a distribution center for domestic and even regional flights, and considered an “opportunity” for both of them leaving Latam.
However, they clarified that growth in the local plaza is tied to all the pending macro issues and factors such as the drop in Argentine airport charges.
“To think for example of flights from Córdoba to Santiago de Chile, as we had, we must calculate that a ticket starts with $ 100 only in those taxes, 75 are of the rate charged by Argentina; the rest the Chilean ”; the Jetsmart headline clarified.
Tossutti pointed out: “Latam leaves a very large market percentage that I understand we are going to look for. We are very optimistic if this government understands something about trade policy. Cabotage should grow rapidly and bhub córdoba has significant regional connectivity ”.
And he confirmed that the company maintains five routes from Córdoba, and will be activating them depending on how demand is recovering.
“The first thing we are going to return with is the so-called dairy flights: they touch many points and they are lifting people to fill the plane in each one. It will be connecting Córdoba with other parts of the country without going through Buenos Aires. As the flow increases, we will analyze more flights. And eventually put an operating base in Córdoba ”, Pérez Corral synthesized.
Corresponsal de Argentina, Encargado de seleccionar las noticias más relevantes de su interés a nuestro sitio web NewsPer.com
