Other North & South America Frequent Flyer Programs - Aerolineas Argentinas - a couple of A340s grounded

Oopsie! (http://www.clarin.com/politica/Aerolineas-denuncian-falta-mantenimiento-Airbus_0_594540608.html)

The translator services are "good enough" if you need one, to find out why friends don't let friends fly Aerolineas.

Depending on who you believe... this may be related to a fight between the Unions that control the maintenance staff and the management of AR which wants to dump all the widebody Boeings and go to a long-haul all Airbus fleet... the Pilots union (who are anti Airbus and pro Boeing) want AR to get the 747-800 or at least stay 747 focused and have apparently teamed up with the technical side to ground the A340s at all costs......

AR is a friggen circus..... :rolleyes: :mad: :td: :mad: :rolleyes:

I'm so glad AR is joining SkyTeam and not OW or Star.

this may be related to a fight between the Unions that control the maintenance staff and the management of AR which wants to dump all the widebody Boeings and go to a long-haul all Airbus fleet... the Pilots union (who are anti Airbus and pro Boeing) want AR to get the 747-800 or at least stay 747 focused and have apparently teamed up with the technical side to ground the A340s at all costs......

that might all become irrelevant anyway...

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20111121-712623.html

State-owned Aerolineas Argentinas plans to shift its focus to domestic and regional flights rather than long haul international trips as it struggles to deal with high costs, a top executive said Monday....It is our objective to review all international long haul destinations--the U.S., Europe, Oceania--that are the company's biggest loss making markets, which explain 40% of its losses," the minister said.



... perhaps both sides will get their way, both airbus and boeing longhaul aircraft will disappear, although somehow I doubt that will make either the pilots or the maintenance staff happy.

It isn't irrelevant so much as they clearly aren't focused on keeping a safe longhaul fleet in the skies. Someone may refresh my memory, but I seem to recall that they couldn't fly some of their longhaul aircraft certain places because the secured creditors would seize them.

AR is one of the world's worst airlines... it shouldn't even be allowed to fly to the US and Europe.

Maintenance issues are not unique to AR, read this article about AF and its Chinese maintenance contractor in Bloomberg news today:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-25/air-france-a340-flew-with-missing-screws-after-maintenance-visit-to-china.html

".....An Airbus (EAD) SAS A340 operated by Air France-KLM (AF) Group was halted in Boston in mid-November after about 30 screws were found to be missing from a protective panel, the airline said.

The long-range plane had undergone maintenance in China, at Taeco-Taikoo Aircraft Engineering and left the facility Nov. 10. It had stopped at Air France’s hub at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for three days, and the absence of the screws went unnoticed until several days later in Boston, the carrier said. ....."