Aerolíneas Argentinas cancels mileage accrual for state employees

Aerolíneas Argentinas announced that as of this Thursday, March 1st, public officials will stop accumulating miles when traveling with a ticket paid for by the State to consume when they fly privately for the company. With this decision, the possibility that officials of the three branches of government can accumulate miles for personal benefit on official trips, which are paid for by the public coffers, is eliminated. In this regard, the flag carrier revealed that during 2023, nearly 80 million miles were credited to different people who traveled through the company with tickets purchased by the three branches of government.With those miles accumulated, more than 10,000 tickets for personal use were redeemed during the last year alone, of which 1,000 were issued in business class. The cost of this mechanism for the majority-state-owned company in 2023 was more than $2.364 billion, which is equivalent to approximately US$2.7 million at market value. The company stated that this “resulted in the creation of a liability in dollars for Aerolíneas Argentinas.” You may also be interested in: “Airline tickets increased by up to 17,525% in the last five years””The company’s decision is made taking into account that it is a benefit that originates in a payment from the State, and that generates a debt in dollars to the State itself,” explained the company. In this context, he said that “the focus of Aerolíneas Argentinas is on increasing productivity and efficiency in the use of its fleet and its technical and human resources”, and stressed that “the commercial and operational decisions that were taken in this first stage of management are aligned with that priority, which aims to improve economic results towards the end of the year”. At the same time, the company reported that it is on track to close out a record-breaking summer season. During January, it carried more than 1.3 million passengers, 12% more than in the same month last year, according to the data provided. In this regard, the statement specified that “this number marks the best January in its history”, and highlighted that “during that period its punctuality increased by 11 points compared to December, standing at 81%”.
Original source in Spanish