No. This has nothing to do with the new government, it has all to do with the OUTGOING government which has created all this mess.
Airlines were until 10 days ago able to hedge their Peso positions using the forward/futures markets. That was 100% legal and available until 10 days ago the Central Bank started having legal issues with the opposition legislators accusing them of fraud/insider trading, etc.
There is a lot of detail here that I don't have time to write about here, and its all quite complicated and 200% NOT travel related.
Suffice it to say that things will quickly get back to normal a few weeks after the new government is in office.
Originally Posted by
M60_to_LGA
Well, it does have to do with the new government. The airlines expect Macri will quickly devalue the peso, so they don't want to end up holding a bunch of pesos that within two-three weeks will likely be worth far fewer dollars.
I imagine that the timing of this decision has something to do with how long it takes them to convert their pesos into USD.
I expect that the airlines will begin selling peso-denominated tickets again shortly after the impending devaluation.
One question, though - Argentinean media is saying that Macri will end the cepo on Day 1, but when looking at the fine print I'm seeing some suggestion that the exchange controls will end for physical persons but might be kept in place for a while on large corporate transactions. Does anyone local have any sense as to what the plan is?