May 9, 2020 – With the arrival of flight AR1141 from Rome early this morning, Aerolíneas Argentinas has already brought back home more than 20,000 Argentine passengers since the worldwide pandemic was announced.
Since March 18, when the Argentine Government decided to restrict flights coming from risk zones, the Argentine flag carrier has operated 71 flights from Miami, Madrid, London, Barcelona, Roma, Punta Cana, Cancun, Bogota, Quito, Lima, Montevideo, Santiago de Chile, Salvador de Bahía, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Porto Seguro and Florianopolis.
The flights, which were scheduled as “special flights”, allowed not only for stranded Argentine passengers with Aerolíneas Argentinas tickets to return to their homes, but also for other Argentine people who had tickets from other airlines to exchange their tickets through agreements with 52 companies from all over the world or to access the registration system in the consulates.
“The strategic importance of Aerolíneas Argentinas lies in its operating results. No other airline operating in the country can mount a similar large-scale operation in a critical context. And said strength arises, mostly, from the capacity and the professional commitment of every individual working in our airline”, said Pablo Ceriani, President of Aerolíneas Argentinas.
Apart from Rome, another flight will arrive today from Santiago and another from Shanghai. The latter is the eighth out of nine initial flights that have been scheduled to bring medical supplies from China. The ninth flight departs tonight.
In the meantime, a flight will arrive in the country tomorrow from Florianopolis and another will depart to Madrid, also carrying 243 Spanish residents back to their home country.
It should be pointed out that in the last weeks, a study conducted by Kantar Barómetro, a consulting firm, placed Aerolíneas Argentinas as one of the two companies of any industry that is most valued by Argentine people in the framework of the health crisis caused by the COVID-19, even ranking above the mass consumption chains of the pharmaceutical industry, hypermarkets, food industry and the like.