Tourist dollar: according to IATA, airlines “will transfer their capacity to other locations”

The International Air Transport Association (IATA, for its acronym in English) has warned that the growing restrictions on the tourist dollar, which this week have been increased with the increase in the perception in the Irpef account from 35% to 45% on the price of tickets and expenses cards abroad will end up with international airlines landing in Ezeiza “they will transfer their capacity to other places, especially at a time of high fuel prices and scarce resources.

Through a publication in its digital magazine ALN News, IATA stressed that “this new measure will mainly affect Argentine consumers, because it will discourage the purchase of tickets by increasing their cost, reducing the free movement of Argentine citizens”.

The criticism of this entity, the largest in the world among airlines, thus added to that which had been formulated locally on Thursday by airlines through the Chamber of Airlines in Argentina (Jurca), as well as by travel agencies, after AFIP had decided, the night before, to increase the perception of the “paper dollar” or the “tourist dollar” by 10 percentage points.

Iata added, in its newsletter, published on Friday: “The uncertainty of the market and the imposition of this type of measures unexpectedly and without prior consultation it means that airlines operating in Argentina are obliged to do so reduce flight frequencies and connectivity with other destinationsjust at the moment when the restoration of the country’s international connectivity is on the right track ”.

In this sense, they underlined – as Jurca had done the day before – that if the planes arriving in Argentina from abroad departed half empty, this situation “would jeopardize the current routes and perhaps it would involve using the fleet to other destinations“.

added Pietro Cerda, IATA Vice President for the Americas: “We are concerned that the Argentine government continues to prevent its citizens from accessing international air travel. We know the demand is there and the airlines are willing to provide the offer for business and pleasure. However, if the business environment deteriorates further, the airlines move their skills elsewhere, especially in a period characterized by high fuel prices and scarce availability of resources. Argentina runs the risk of losing the international connectivity it has just recovered after the pandemic. “

According to IATA data, in the last two years the number of tickets sold from abroad to Argentina has been reduced. We have gone from a “relatively balanced” sale in the last two pre-pandemic years (when foreign tourism in Argentina had significantly increased) to a situation in which foreigners have ceased to arrive due to restrictions, first, and then due to the gradual opening of flights.

“In the past two years, the origin of the sale of tickets for international flights serving the Argentine market changed to 60% of tickets sold in Argentina against 40% sold abroad“IATA added.

The organization also referred to Argentina’s place in the ranking that airlines look at when measuring the ease of doing business in a country where Argentina appears. penultimate

“According to the Tourism and Travel Development Index 2021, Argentina is one of the most difficult countries to do business. In the subcomponent” Business environment “, which refers to the ease of doing business, Argentina is positioned as country number 116 out of 117, surpassed only by Venezuela. In other words, doing business in Argentina is already expensive and will worsen business in this sector, which contributed 2.1% to Argentina’s GDP in 2019, “the article adds.