Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicillof said in a press conference on Monday that the province would be willing to economically sustain the country’s flag carrier Aerolíneas Argentinas to prevent its privatization. 

“There are 21 destinations to cities in provinces which only Aerolíneas Argentinas flies to, and we already lived through it. When it was privatized, it stopped flying to unprofitable destinations and left half of Argentina without flight connections. That is the objective. We are on the verge of a scam,” Kicillof said at the Government Palace in La Plata. 

Former Aerolíneas Argentinas’ head Pablo Ceriani attended the conference, as well as aeronautical union leaders. Months of strikes due to tensions between unions, Aerolíneas Argentinas management, and the government came to an end with an agreement in November.

“The national government says that nobody wants Aerolíneas Argentinas: that is a lie; the province of Buenos Aires does,” Kicillof added, pledging to “explore all mechanisms to provide an answer” if the buyout became a reality. He highlighted dialogue with workers and suggested establishing an interprovincial shareholding scheme. “This requires a series of institutional steps. Today is simply about expressing the commitment to start taking them as a province.”

The national airline has been a political lightning rod across several administrations. President Javier Milei vowed to privatize the flag carrier as soon as he took office, putting it on the list of companies subject to privatization in the original version of the Ley Bases. However, the clause was later removed, and it was not included in the version approved by Congress in June.

In early October, Milei issued an executive order proclaiming the company subject to privatization. That executive order is subject to congressional approval: if it passes both houses, the Executive Branch would be allowed to sell the company.

Press Undersecretary Javier Lanari derided the governor on X in response to the proposal: “They expropriated it. They bankrupted it. They made it unviable. They turned it into a slush fund for political militants.”

The debate about Aerolíneas Argentinas is part of a general government push to privatize the aeronautical industry. A new “open skies” policy has allowed more foreign airlines to enter the Argentine market by removing a legal requirement that at least half of flights within Argentina had to be operated by Aerolíneas Argentinas. Meanwhile, new regulations that passed in July open the door for more low-cost carriers, with four new international airlines being authorized to start operating in Argentina. 

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