Four of the commercial passenger airlines currently operating in Argentina have agreed to join the government’s “Fair Prices” program, a tool that sets prices for a diverse basket of products and services.
As anticipated by Pablo Ceriani, President of Aerolíneas Argentinas, the agreement will consist of “establishing a price path of 4% per month for 120 days starting from August 1st” based on the fare structure of July 31.
This was sealed at a meeting held this afternoon at the Ministry of Economy’s headquarters, attended by, in addition to the head of the state airline, its Commercial Director, Fabián Lombardo; Flybondi’s CEO, Mauricio Sana, the General Manager of JetSMART in Argentina, Gonzalo Pérez Corral; and Andes Líneas Aéreas CEO, Miguel Ziadi, along with its General Manager, Horacio Preneste.
“We aim to continue boosting a sector that has seen record growth since 2019, which expects to register 16 million passengers between domestic and international flights this year, and that has increased the number of aircraft across all airlines“, stated Sergio Massa, Minister of Economy who is also a pre-candidate for president from the ruling party.
“In addition, we agreed on a dialogue table to reach 30 million passengers in four years,” he added.
Mauricio Sana, CEO of Flybondi, expressed that he finds this “a good initiative aimed at keeping airline tickets accessible and competitive. Even in challenging environments like the present, Flybondi remains committed to the goal that more and more Argentinians can fly”.
On his part, Pablo Ceriani indicated that the agreement “provides predictability and certainty to the entire sector through clear, fair and transparent rules for everyone”, while Perez Corral stated that the meeting “was very productive”, adding that “the Minister and Secretary understood the problems arising in daily operations”.
In June, the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC) reported that inflation was 6%, representing a cumulative change of 50.7% for 2023, and an annual rate of 115.5%. This places Argentina as the country with the third highest annual inflation in the world after Venezuela (429%) and Zimbabwe (176%).
According to the latest projections of the Market Expectations Survey (REM) published by the Central Bank of Argentina, inflation in 2023 will close around 142%.
