Aerolíneas Argentinas has opened a voluntary retirement program that covers ground staff, some 8,000 employees working in areas such as airport handling, aircraft dispatch, and traffic, among others. In total, the state-owned company has about 12,000 employees.
The information was initially made known by the Infobae website, and the data were confirmed to Aviacionline by the company, clarifying that this is the first time in fifteen years that a similar program has been carried out.
In the internal communication Aerolíneas Argentinas sent to its employees, it is specified that those who have been with the company for more than two years and are not within the pre-retirement agreement plan can participate.
The agreement «will be paid in a monthly payment plan, equivalent to 50% of the years of service at the time of signing. For example, if one has 20 years of service, it will be paid in 10 monthly payments.» clarifying that the payments will be adjusted according to future collective wage increases.
The deadline for Aerolíneas Argentinas employees to enroll in the voluntary retirement program is March 31, and those interested are invited to seek advice without any obligation to join.
The state-owned company is one of those that the government of Javier Milei has in its sights to privatize along with others in the aviation sector such as the handling provider Intercargo and EANA, the air navigation services provider.
This is part of a profound reform of the Argentine Aeronautical Code and the almost total deregulation of the commercial aviation market proposed in Decree of Necessity and Urgency 70/2023 of December 20, 2023, whose legislative treatment is still pending but has already met strong resistance from traditional aeronautical unions.
Meanwhile, the government has advanced on issues they defined as aimed at improving the sustainability of the company, such as a 43% reduction in directorates and, this week, in the elimination of the possibility for public officials to accumulate miles in the loyalty program when flying with tickets paid for by the state.
