MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Travel agency takes over Aerolíneas

Travel agency takes over Aerolíneas

After months of dispute and protests, the Spanish government holding SEPI sold Aerolíneas Argentinas to a private Spanish tour operator, which agreed to take over half of Argentina's flag carrier 1,3 billion US dollars debt and inject an additional 50 million US dollars to recover Austral, its domestic subsidiary.Aerolíneas was the first Argentine government company to be sold in the early nineties but the project never really took off since Iberia became its mother company, the Spanish flag carrier, also overwhelmed by debt and poor management.Grupo Marsans will take over Aerolíneas through Air Comet a private charter airline.

The Spanish group includes Viajes Marsans, a tour operator, Spanair, a joint venture with Scandinavian Airlines System and Air Plus Argentina.As part of the agreement Marsans agreed to keep all of Aerolíneas 6,800 staff for two years and will gradually reopen routes closed during the financial crisis.

The buyers also plans to add 23 aircraft to the fleet in the next four years, and expects to make Aerolíneas break even in the first year and report an operating profit in the second year.

Unable to service a billion US dollars debt, and mounting monthly losses of 30 million US dollars forced Aerolíneas last June to seek protection from creditors.