Dear Sky Team Group,

Today 21st of August of 2013 the Argentinean Government has intimated Lan Argentina for the total stop of maintenance and hangar service in the airport located inside the Capital of Buenos Aires – Aeroparque Jorge Newbery.

The National Regulator Airport System (Organismo Regulador del Sistema Nacional de Aeropuertos - ORSNA) demands Lan to proceed in the end of stop of service in 10 days from today even so Lan Argentina has a legal agreement signed by the former President of Argentina, Dr. Néstor Kirchner, to use the hangars until the year 2023 paying each month a total amount of U$S 20.000 for its service.

ORSNA claims that according to the article 3 of the resolution 123 (http://www.infoleg.gob.ar/infolegInternet/anexos/205000-209999/205407/norma.htm) that was stipulated in the year 2012 clearly expresses that from the 1st of August of this year “the building facilities attached to the South Platform (Industrial) from Aeroparque (.) shall be supplied for the exclusive use of the Federal Government". This decision not only may leave more than a thousand employees without job but also it would be a direct impact to passengers.

This is not the only problem that Lan Argentina dealt these past years. From past March the national company Intercargo removed the use of skybridges to Lan Argentina. Intercargo is the company that is in charge of all operational ground service providing ground handling services in domestic and international flights at 20 airports in Argentina consisting of signaling and pushback loading and unloading of cargo, trailer, water loading, cleaning, toilets drain, power supply, air conditioning, etc.

Due to this problem passengers have to wait for hours to get off the aircraft as ramp service is denied by Intercargo with no reason whatsoever. Those people are children, babies, grandparents, grandmothers that have to wait inside the aircraft sometimes during excruciating conditions, during summer temperatures may reach 43°C.

According to Paula Marrconi, general secretary of the Argentinean “Association of Flights Attendants for the Commercial Airline Industry” (La Asosiación de Tripulantes de Cabina de Pasajeros de Empresas Comerciales – ATCPEA) manifested in an interview to lapoliticaonline.com that passengers have to wait sometimes 3 hours to get their bags as Intercargo don´t remove them from the aircraft. Also she informed in a letter that she wrote to the current Argentinean President, Dra. Cristina Ferndandez de Kirchner, that ORSNA and the Civil Aviation Administration (Administración Nacional de Aviación Civil – ANAC) didn´t authorize the route expansion of Lan Argentina even so everything was properly presented and that also those 2 organizations didn´t allow the introduction of new aircrafts into their fleet. The main consequence is that if an airplane needs to be repaired aboard from Argentina the Argentinean Government doesn´t allow aircraft replacement as they reject with no cause the enrollment of a new registration.

I do understand the fact that the Argentinean government is protecting its interest and giving priority to their National carrier that is Aerolineas Argentinas. But unfortunately the way in which they are trying to protect their business has become totally abusive and inclusive violent. Not only they seem that they simply don´t care about the passengers that arrive and tour around their country but also they are putting in risk the job of thousands.

What we would like to know is why Sky Team supports an airline with such a violent behavior that not only harasses competitors but also look down on passengers throughout the mechanisms of the National State in which they are protected by. An institution is a representation of various departments and one of them is the human resources area. If you support Aerolineas Argentinas in your group you would be accepting an indirect way of bullying.

Once again we would like to know your point of view in the matter.

“We” are the 3000 viewers from the blog and the 300 from Instagram. They are not only viewers, they are people that want to know.

Thank you very much for your time.

Best regards,

3000 viewers from iamtiredofsmilingatyou.blogspot.com and the 300 from instagram: iamtiredofsmilingatyou