David Beach

Has anyone arrived at one of the the EZE international terminals over the last few weeks?

The AFIP (tax officials, also responsible for collecting import fees for items bought abroad) stormtroopers have recently completely taken over Aduana (customs), and installed X-ray machines, forcing all baggage to go through. Until recently, they used to just waive most people right through, especially foreigners. Not now. The lineups have been truly monumental. When I flew into EZE by Iberia from Spain at the end of July, there was a lineup stretching all the way back to the baggage reclaim (Immigration was not too bad at that time, better than normal), over a thousand people for sure, and a person who was at the front of the line told me she had waited 3 hours (I asked to bud in at the front because I said I had a connection, and did not get any resistence, others may resist). This was at about 11:15 am when I passed through "customs", my arrival for 8:10 having been delayed to about 10:30. If I had not budded in the Customs line, I would have certainly been late for my 2:40 pm flight from AEP to Mendoza even if I had immediately taken a taxi.

The times waiting for luggage at the carousels have also increased, and the AFIP/federal police people , apart from what they do at customs, now appear to grab 1 in 10 bags, and wait for the person to show up looking for them to tell them to open them for manual inspection. This was interesting to watch , as I was waiting about half an hour for my bags after the first started coming through from my flight.

I would strongly recommend that if you are flying into EZE and connecting at AEP (or vice-versa), spend the night in the city of BA at a hotel, unless you have a ridiculously long turnaround time like 10 hours or more. Seriously. Too much, more than can be mentioned in a post, can go wrong. Anyone suggesting otherwise can play it tight with their own lives, but should avoid playing with others.