Aerolineas Argentinas reduced its loss by 34% compared to 2019

Dergam Mousa

3 years ago

Aerolíneas Argentinas confirmed that, according to the 2021 balance sheet, its loss was reduced by 34% compared to 2019.

The 2021 balance sheet, which was previously approved by the National General Audit Office at the end of April and yesterday, also validated by the shareholders’ meeting and audited by the international firm KPMG, showed a negative result of 438 million dollars which, if compared to the 667 million dollars of 2019, means a reduction in the loss of 229 million dollars.

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It is important to mention that the State’s contributions during 2021 were 65,796 million pesos, of which 35,180 million returned to the State’s coffers as taxes and fees.

“It is significant that the results of 2019, corresponding to the previous management, are similar to those of 2020 having the airline industry gone through the biggest crisis in its history, when between March and December we had practically no operation beyond special flights”, expressed Pablo Ceriani, head of Aerolíneas Argentinas.

“Even in 2019 with record loss levels but in a stable health and operating context, the company contributed 3.5 billion dollars to the GDP in terms of Airport Gross Product, productivity and income from inbound and domestic tourism. It is a fallacy to state that the company does not generate or contribute anything to economic development”, added Ceriani.

It is worth noting that, in addition, the liability in miles was reduced: in 2019 it was 308 million dollars while in 2021 it was 212 million dollars.

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On this point, the company’s president explained that “in the 2016 -2019 management, the State’s contributions were reduced by selling miles to banking entities with values well below market values. This generated a significant liability for us and a great damage to the company, to the National State and ultimately to all Argentines because basically what was carried out was a typical indebtedness process.”

In addition, by the end of 2020, the merger between Aerolíneas Argentinas and Austral was completed, eliminating duplicated structures in maintenance and other operating areas, generating greater efficiency in the use of resources and using the new idle capacity to launch its maintenance project to third parties as a business unit.

Aerolíneas Argentinas is in the process of expanding its other business units: cargo transportation is growing rapidly, with weekly shipments of salmon from Chile to the United States and corn seeds for cultivation, among other products. Also, its training center receives pilots from other airlines for instruction in simulators: contracts were recently signed with Aeroméxico and Boliviana de Aviación.

In a context of global crisis in the airline industry after two years of pandemic, with indicators that, according to IATA, show a drop of almost 50% in the number of passengers transported and a projection of returning to the previous numbers by mid-2023, it is worth noting that the company is operating at 100% in its domestic network and 62% in its international network.

In the region, with the exception of Copa Airlines, which had a positive balance of US$50 million, all the companies had negative results: LATAM (4084 million), Gol (1366 million), Aeromexico (1043 million) and Azul (886 million).