With the arrival of new variants of COVID-19 in Argentina, there has been an abrupt rise in the number of infections in the last two weeks, from an average of 1,500 cases at the end of November to a record 50,000 before the end of 2021.
In an advanced vaccination campaign that registers 71% of the population with two doses received and 12% with a third, the increase of infections did not translate into a proportional increase of hospitalizations in intensive care or deaths, but some slight disruptions are already starting and impacting different sectors, among them the airline industry.
Pablo Ceriani, Aerolíneas Argentinas’ President, warned today that the company’s operations «may suffer delays, modifications and/or cancellations» and that in view of this situation they are making a «great effort to sustain operations in the middle of the summer season and to affect flight schedules as little as possible. We kindly ask for your patience», he concluded, adding that any flight news will be informed through the company’s official channels.
In contact with Aviacionline, the company said that it is observing an increase in the number of infections and isolations, especially in operational areas where, although they work with bubbles, the infection of one worker affects theirs. They emphasized that in these areas a swabbing is compulsory every 15 days.
Flybondi explained to Aviacionline that for the moment they have not had a concrete impact on the service during the last weeks, but that «the situation of the advance of the new strain and the increase of contagions is not unknown to the company».
«We have had some positive cases and an increase in the number of people with close contact within the crews, which makes the organization of flight schedules more complex,» continued the ultra-low-cost airline. «We continue to work on internal prevention campaigns and compliance with protocols, as we have been doing since the beginning of the pandemic», they concluded.
JetSMART stated that for the moment they are not being impacted by this new wave, pointing out that they have double biosecurity certification, that of Skytrax and APEX, besides having recently closed an agreement with a cleaning and disinfection brand, incorporating their products in their aircraft.
On the other hand, the airport sector indicated that the level of contagion among its workers and the growth is not unlike what is happening in the country and that the company has reinforced the communication of extreme care among the teams so that at the moment no airport is seeing its operations affected.
The Union of Senior and Professional Staff of Airline Companies was the first to react publicly on Monday, requesting the ORSNA (Regulatory Body of the National Airport System), the Airport Security Police, and the presidency of Aerolíneas Argentinas to restrict access to airport terminals to passengers only, due to what they consider the «uncontrolled flow of people attending without any kind of control (sic)».
The impact of the explosion of contagions on-air operations is not a particularly local occurrence. In recent weeks thousands of flights have been canceled in other regions due to the lack of personnel, either because they have been infected or because they have been close contacts of positive cases (even this led to the reduction of the isolation period for vaccinated people who were vaccinated and did not show symptoms).
