LAN Argentina

[Jorge Newberry]

The Argentine goverment has sold LAFSA (no planes, but routes and staff) to a rather mysterious alliance between LAN Chile and Aero 2000. The latter is owned by Miguel Ziadi, ex-boss of DINAR who may. or may not, have something to do with Eduardo Eurnekian, the owner of Aeropuertos Argentinos 2000 which runs most of the important airports in the country. Full details for conspiracy fans here

http://www.pagina12web.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-48366.html

[Jorge Newberry]

Surprise, surprise! The Chileans are not dying to take on the LAFSA chaps straight away. The latter interrrupted operations at Aeroparque for some hours yesterday. Full, not to say byzantine, details in Spanish here:

http://www.pagina12web.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-48626.html

[Jorge Newberry]

And just to make matters even more interesting the union representing about half the LAFSA workers has said "no". They want LAFSA to be kept going as a national enterprise.

http://www.pagina12web.com.ar/diario/elpais/1-49056.html

[Lite]

I remember reading in an article from 1999 about Aerolineas Argentinas, and about the new management team that was coming in from, I think it was, AMR Corp who own American Airlines. There was lots of pomp about new A342s & A346s, and looking for a replacement for the Boeing 737 & MD-80s. They were saying that these, the A310s & 742s would all be gone by 2005 & they would hopefully have moved their entire ops to EZE.

What went wrong? Why must the airline operate to AEQ & EZE? There was talk of AR joining oneworld, so a cooperation would have been set up between LAN & AR rather than this airwar?

Can anyone explain ...?

[Jorge Newberry]

A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since then. Aerolíneas is now part of the Spanish Marsans group and seems to be doing tolerably well given the general state of things in Argentina and the world airline biz generally...

I don't know that they *have to* operate from Aeroparque but apart from Montevideo it is only used for internal flights. It's also very conveniently located by comparison to EZE. I used to be able to walk there to meet my then missus when she was coming back from jaunts to 'el interior'

[malagajohn]

There was a time when one of the governments , not sure which one , was talking of closing Aeroparque because of safety etc and when AA2000 took on the concession to manage the airports it was certainly on the agenda . However Mr Eurnekian did a quick clean up job in Aeroparque and convinced someone that clsoure was not really on the agenda anymore

Whatever happened to the crazy/ interesting project to build an airport on a man made island in the middle of the River Plate?

Was this a real project or did we dream this up in a boliche when we weere bored??