Argentine President Javier Milei signed the "Decree of Necessity & Urgency" #70/2023 on 20Dec23, ten days after assuming office, designed to "free" the Argentine economy of excessive regulation, including a sharp reduction in the number of companies owned and run by the national govenment.
As Milei settled into the presidency in 2024, he and his allies in the Argentine senate and congress agressively pushed their deregulation agenda, especially with regard to the airline industry, which has historically been heavily regulated in Argentina with the dominant carrier being Aerolineas Argentinas, entirely state-owned through most of its 75-year history, including since 2008 to the present day.
In an effort designed to introduce more competition to the Argentine air transportation industry, which has three main players; Aerolineas Argentinas, Flybondi and Jetsmart Argentina, President Milei, after having run into strong opposition in the Argentine congress during the course of 2024, issued Decree #844/2024 on 23Sep24 instructing the National Civil Aviation Administration (spanish initials ANAC) to loosen regulations, which required Argentine airlines to employee only Argentine workers and fly only aircraft registered in Argentina.
To this end, resolución #363/2024 was issued on 04Oct24, amending Articles #106 and #107 to allow Argentine airlines to employ foreign workers and operate aircraft based in other countries, subject to the rules and regulations of the ANAC and other Argentine aviation regulatory bodies.
This will allow the implementation of an "Interchange" agreement signed by Argentine and Chilean government authorities in August 2024, whereby aircraft of both countries will be authorized to fly for the airlines of both nations, subject to being inspected by both the Argentine and Chilean safety and licensing authorities for approval to operate in their airspace, a process referred to as "double vigilance". Interchange agreements of this nature permit airlines to shift aircraft back-and-forth between the countries that are parties to the arrangement, with the flexibility that this allows in the use of aircraft resources resulting in much more cost-efficient operations that also better accommodate shifting customer demand.
Argentina had such an agreement in place with Chile in the 2010's, specifically permitting LATAM Argentina and LATAM Chile to interchange aircraft, which they apparently only did with LATAM Chile 767-300's flying for LATAM Argentina, but the recently signed agreement allows for all airlines of both countries to interchange with each other.
The first airlines to take advantage of the newly liberalized regulations and agreement between Argentina and Chile will be Jetsmart Argentina and Jetsmart Chile, with the latter carrier already having transferred A320ceo CC-AWE "Gaviota Austral" to its Argentine affiliate on 02Oct24, with another such aircraft, CC-AWC "Loica", scheduled to be transferred on 24Oct24.
Sources:
No comments:
Post a Comment