Airlines: losses of 438 million dollars in 2021 and controversial confrontation with Cambiemos

Aerolineas Argentinas reported that, according to the 2021 budget, it recorded losses of the equivalent of $ 438 million. The figure, which does not reflect the total contributions that the State made in that period to resolve the company, was presented by the current management as a favorable result and which shows an alleged improvement compared to the numbers of 2019, the latest of the four who had the direction of Cambiemos.

“Aerolineas Argentinas has confirmed that, according to the 2021 budget, its loss has been reduced by 34% compared to 2019,” the company reported in a statement.

He added: “The 2021 financial statements, which had previously been approved by the National Auditor General in late April and yesterday, also validated by the shareholders’ meeting and verified by the international company KPMG, showed a negative result of 438 million dollars. , compared to 667 million in 2019, means a reduction in the loss of 229 million “.

The accounting loss of the airlines, however, was not all the contributions that the state should have paid in the last year. The state-owned company received subsidies of 65,796 million pesos, according to the company’s statement in the same statement. Converted into dollars based on the price of the last business day of 2021, those subsidies amounted to $ 650 million.

The company’s statement later claimed that of those 65,796 million pesos of state subsidies “returned” to the state coffers, about $ 35,180 million in taxes and fees.

The truth is that Aerolineas Argentinas is a public limited company and, as such, is obliged to pay these taxes and fees like any other company. But it is one of the few, if not the only, case of a company subsidized by the contribution of all residents of Argentina to cover their losses.

(New in development)