Decisions are said to have “Opportunity costs”: it is what is given up when opting for an alternative. The determination to put a “stocks” on the commercial aviation activity and allow only 600 passengers a day to enter through Ezeiza -which drastically reduces the number of flights leaving and entering the country- was taken to prevent the uncontrolled entry of the delta strain of Covid-19, but the economic consequences remained along the way.
To the long list of airlines that left the country or temporarily suspended their operations -not always with notice of when they will return- several more can be added, warned this week the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the institution that represents airlines globally. In the first group they are already Latam Argentina, Qatar Airways y Air New Zealand. In a second, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Air Canada, Alitalia, British Airways y Turkish Airlines, above all because the routes they carry out are not enabled or their frequency was greatly reduced.
// The Government confirmed that it will increase the living and mobile minimum wage
For the airlines that operate, Argentina is no longer so profitable. With few flights approved until July 11 and without a too predictable horizon -and taking into account that, to leave a plane parked in Ezeiza you have to spend around US $ 30,000 a day-, they choose to move their aircraft to other more profitable centers. A plane that connects Buenos Aires with Frankfurt can also connect New York with Frankfurt, for example.
Before the pandemic, IATA calculated the economic impact of the commercial aviation industry in the country. According to a report by the institution, airlines, airport operators, companies operating at airports, aircraft manufacturers and providers of air navigation services directly employed some 71,000 people in Argentina. To that figure are added 79,000 indirect jobs.
“Additionally, the salaries that the industry pays its…