Paola Tamburelli, ANAC: “We will put special flights where there are more people who need immediate return”

With the increase in the daily entry quota for passengers from abroad, which has now risen from 1,000 to 1,700 per day, and the sum of special flights, with a number of additional passengers which will add to these limits, the National Civil Aviation Administration (ANAC) has already started to define with the companies the new schedules that will be in effect in the coming days.

In dialogue with Infobae, Paola Tamburelli, director of Anac, explained how these new flights will work.

-How many flights will be added with the new patterns?

-Between today and tomorrow we will be sitting with the airlines, as always, to define the quotas and establish the schedules. It is impossible to say the number of flights in advance, because it also depends on the decisions of the companies, which, given the quota, can decide to fly it in one flight or in several. You always try to give them as much flexibility as possible so that they operate in the way that is best for them. We are now going from 7,000 weekly places to 11,900; from 1,000 passengers per day, on average, to 1,700 passengers. And from September 6 to 2,300 daily passengers.

-Will these quotas be enough to solve the problem of blocked people?

-Always having health as a priority and that everything be done to ensure that flights are not a vector of contagion, we asked for a solution for people who had to reschedule or who had their flights canceled because of quotas so meager they were in place before. We have succeeded in integrating into this administrative decision the possibility of special flights, in particular for destinations where there are a greater number of people and a flight may be filled with people who have had their flight rescheduled or canceled and who have had their return in the previous weeks.

-How are these special flights going to be implemented?

We use very objective and crossed indicators. We have data from airports, the Ministry of the Interior and businesses. When we crossed the data, we saw the destinations where there are more people that require immediate feedback. There we will put flights. But that was only published today and now we will meet to set the flight schedules according to the new quota and the needs that are told to us of the passengers who have to return home immediately.

-Is the number of passengers on special flights not included in the quota?

-Exactly. It is outside the quota.

_ Which companies will exploit them?

-All companies where destinations have passengers. It can be anyone. It is aimed at all companies operating in Argentina.

-The scheduling authorizations had been given every two weeks, which generated uncertainty in the companies, will it continue to operate like that?

-The authorizations were given during the validity of the administrative decisions and in this case it will be the same. The validity will be given in principle during the extension of the first stage of the first quota of 1700 per day but it also depends on the orders that companies make to us. If you place orders for 15 days, we will allow them for 15 days. If you place your request for 30 days, we will allow it for 30 days.

-But companies have asked for longer terms, like at least three months.

-This was affirmed in the past, when administrative decisions clearly lasted 15 days. Predictability is essential in aerial mode. For this reason, since the last administrative decisions, the validity period has been extended in an attempt to ensure this predictability to have a longer flight approval period.

-What new airports besides Ezeiza will be authorized in September to receive flights from abroad?

-The increase of the quota to more than 2,000 seats per day is subject to the authorization of new secure air corridors. New airports inside which will have to be requested by the governors. And they will have to be authorized by the various organizations because they must respect the basic sanitary conditions which allow these flights to operate. They must guarantee testing laboratories at airports, ensuring that jurisdictions will be able to monitor the isolation of arriving passengers, as well as transfer samples that could possibly be positive to Malbrán to identify what strain it is. acts.

– Would they already be activated from September 6?

-Yes. It would be activated for jurisdictions that can accredit all of these conditions.

– When do you think the quotas can be removed?

-As an aviation authority we would love to have it now, but this pandemic experience has taught us that there is no way to be predictable because of the virus. This will depend on the evolution of the pandemic and the different indicators that the Ministry of Health manages to make it more flexible or not in the future. We are always optimistic that the vaccination process is advanced and that the controls being much more consolidated, in particular the isolation, which causes the virus to spread, there will be greater predictability to be able to make it more flexible to the ‘to come up. It will depend on how the pandemic progresses.

-The government is already talking about the entry of tourists from abroad, with the complete vaccination program. Does that indicate that there will be an elimination of quotas?

-Today, the possibility of resuming the pilot experience of border tourism with Chile and Uruguay was signed in September and it has had good results. We are always optimistic that once opened it will be able to stay that way

-Will the companies also have a quota on planes with the new regime?

-Never established a capability on airplanes. It will depend on the protocols and care of each line. The capacity is reduced by the quota but there has never been any capacity.

-Several international airlines have temporarily suspended their operations, is there a risk that they will cease to function permanently?

-Those who suspended flights have to do with the restrictions Argentina had placed on flights from certain countries. In the case of Turkish Airlines, it was suspended and has now resumed when the travel restriction to Turkey was lifted. Now the restrictions on Chile and Brazil are lifted. With which we will have operations LAN, Jetsmart and Brazilian airlines. When there is a market, all businesses come back and operate. None of them said ‘I’m leaving the country’.

-From IATA, the international chamber of airlines, they have assured that there is this risk.

-We handle conversations with companies. And we have all the companies that want to operate in Argentina; of course, they would all like to have no restrictions, but for now, while they’ve been made more flexible, they still are.

-Is there a country that you cannot enter today?

-All restrictions have been lifted as of today

-How many flights are companies asking for?

-Always the airlines raise the need to operate more. We have discussed with them and from this quota, everything will be used.

-Which destinations would have priority for special flights?

-There will be special flights but it is also necessary to take into account certain conditions such as separating two hours between arrival and arrival and this limits the number of flights per day that can arrive. We found it very important to include special flights. Right now we know that in the United States and cities in Europe there are a number of passengers who could fill a plane to return. But we are going to cross-reference the indicators that companies are giving us this week with those coming from airports and other government areas. From now on, special flights can already be operated.

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