About 100 Argentines who were stranded in Europe amid the coronavirus pandemic are returning to their country. They do it through a company flight Iberia that left Madrid this Sunday. Tomorrow, in addition, another from Aerolineas Argentinas will be arriving, which for the first time in a month will bring Argentine citizens from the Spanish capital.
The flight of the European company was initially going to come to Ezeiza empty to take Spaniards stranded here, and it did not bring Argentines. And it was not going to be the first time, since since the skies were closed by the pandemic, ANAC did not authorize the arrival of the plane with passengers, even when there were Argentines who bought their tickets through Iberia. But in the end the negotiation prevailed, ANAC authorized and as reported to Clarion in Chancery, the plane finally let a hundred Argentines board.
But it will not be the only one that brings citizens who were stranded in Spain for these hours. An Airbus 330-200 of Aerolineas Argentinas, with capacity for 272 passengers Between Economy and Business class, he already traveled to Madrid this Sunday, after his last flight there, a month ago. On his return, this Monday, he will bring another contingent of Argentines.
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It is estimated that More than 4,000 citizens of this country are stranded throughout Spain and seeking to return, counting those who stayed in Andorra, and who must return there.
Airline sources said that the criteria for boarding their plane on Sunday the 26th will be the one that Foreign Minister Felipe Solá had announced at the time: level of vulnerability of the person. Sick, elderly and pregnant people would board first.
The Aerolineas Argentinas flight from Madrid to Buenos Aires on Sunday 26 is part of the exceptional travel schedule which the Government continues to approve to resolve the stranded crisis. This is approved week by week. The Last airline flight to Europe was on March 27 precisely to Madrid, one of the only two cities where the company has a direct flight there. The other is Rome.
In Madrid the largest volume of stranded accumulated in Spain, where also – as everywhere – a tense situation prevails. Some managed to mount solid chains on social networks to make themselves heard before the Government. They are critical and pressure. Madrid is also answering for the 2,000 young people who worked in the Andorran ski season (which has no airports or water exits) and were left without work when quarantines were imposed there and in Spain. The Ministry of Health does not want their returns to the country to be authorized because it is considered a risk zone, and because “there are other priorities,” they say.
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Solá is in charge of the stranded operation and from his press office they prepared a report that ensures that 90 percent of Argentines who wanted to return from March 16 onwards -when there were problems at the borders- already “could return”. According to the report, between March 17 and April 16 they returned by air, land and waterway, 168,140 Argentines and residents. And if you add those that entered until April 20 with the new flight schedule, they are 189,633. In the last time, when many Argentines were left without work in the destinations where they were, they went to ask for help to return. They are the ones that were not initially registered.
