Airlines: Subsidies this year already amount to $ 590 million

Data cannot be said to be visible: it is no title or anything that stands out, within attachment 4 of decree 331, for ten days. In that DNU in which the Executive Power specified the adequacy of the National Budget for 2022, in the middle of that attachment (a tome of over a thousand pages, in PDF format) Aerolineas Argentinas was awarded 9,357 million pesosas part of the “Financial Assistance to Public Enterprises and Other Bodies of the Ministry of Transport” program.

This amount is only one small portion of the resources that the State will eventually confer on Aerolineas, so that it can support its activity throughout the year.

The 9,357 million pesos must be added to the original item 63,551,000,000 pesos from December. This amount in pesos replicates, down to cents, the spending that the State made for airlines in 2021. So far this figure had not been updated, because Congress has not sanctioned the 2022 Budget.

So far, in fact, Aerolineas has received an update that amounts to a 15% more Than the last year. This below inflation accumulated five months (24.4%) and also below the total budget update, since the expenses allocated by decree 331 represent an increase greater than 50%.

But even with this “moderate” increase, state subsidies to airlines they still look like a mountain of silver: they are more than 72,000 million pesos, a difficult figure to measure, if not converted into dollars.

By applying the Central Bank’s wholesale dollar this past Friday ($ 124.25, according to Notice “A” 3500), the transfers from the State to the Airlines equal to 586 million dollars.

The extra budget item arrived on the eve of the payment of the half bonus June and airlines he has an important discussion about wages ahead of him with the combative aeronautical unions, as their parity expires on September 30th.

Even if the expenditure on salaries is in pesos and remains smoothie Compared to the costs in dollars (aircraft rental, fuel, taxes and per diem), the staff of Aerolineas it exceeds 11,000 employees. So a future wage agreement that goes hand in hand not very far inflation is likely to end up demanding new disbursements of the state.

The fuel price, which arose after the invasion of Ukraine, also affects costs. According to the International Airline Association (IATA), fuel now accounts for 22% of airline average costs, up from 19% last year.

According to its 2021 Report, Aerolineas has recorded an accounting loss equivalent to $ 438 million. But that figure, which was communicated by the company as a milestone, does not reflect all the contributions that the state has made in the last year, for the equivalent of $ 650 million.

According to market data, with state subsidies updated through the first half, Aerolineas executed less than 40% of the $ 588 million.

During the second half, the company he chairs Paolo Ceriani and this is politically managed by the office of the national senator and leader of La Cámpora Mariano Recaldehas a season ahead with numbers that are approaching almost on par to the subsidies that all Argentines have contributed to him over the past year.