MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine air traffic controllers announce 18-day strike

Air operations will not be affected but ground traffic will. Hence, takeoffs shall not be allowed during the mesure de force

Argentine air traffic controllers nationwide announced an 18-day strike starting this coming Sunday to demand better salaries as people's incomes in the South American country have been dwindled by inflation. The measure is expected to affect air travel, albeit to a limited extent.

Union leaders from the Association of Technicians and Employees of Air Navigation Protection and Safety (ATEPSA) calling the strike foresee dozens of flights either delayed or canceled through June 30 but services will not be interrupted altogether.

Stoppages will last three hours each day at different times. On the first day of the strike, outbound international flights will be affected starting at 8 pm, it was explained. Travelers were advised to contact their airlines for further details.

“All the personnel, from the first to the last worker, will go to their jobs” every day, ATEPSA's Julián Gaday said. “We cannot stop as any other union usually does because we are an essential public service and we have a critical activity which is to control, guide, and separate airborne planes,” he added.

“What we are doing with this type of measure is to restrict one of the tasks we perform daily which is the authorization of aircraft transit on the ground,” he specified meaning that no take-offs will be authorized. But air operations will never be jeopardized. “All flights on the ground will be delayed or rescheduled,” he stressed.

“We have to guarantee 45% of the air activities, with these slots we have more than enough, we do not even come close to affecting that percentage,” he also pointed out.