A strike by pilots and crew demanding salary increases in inflation-hit Argentina affected more than 30,000 passengers on Friday, according to the Aerolineas Argentinas airline and unions.

As workers walked off the job for the second time this month, President Javier Milei was preparing to sign a decree declaring the aviation sector an "essential service" to guarantee a minimum level of service during such strikes, his spokesman said.

The 24-hour strike led to the cancellation of 319 flights, mainly impacting domestic and regional travelers, but also hundreds of passengers heading to the United States and Europe.

Costa Rican engineer Alex Rodriguez, 53, was stranded while on his way to visit one of South America's top tourist attractions, the breathtaking Iguazu Falls on the border between Argentina and Brazil.

"We had planned the holiday a long time ago, about three months ago. We came from very far away, it was expensive and then everything fell through," he told AFP.

The general secretary of the Association of Aeronautical Personnel (APA), Juan Pablo Brey, said the purchasing power of aviation staff had fallen 40 percent since Milei took office in December.

Since taking office in December, Milei has applied a drastic austerity program in a bid to rein in chronic inflation and decades of government overspending.

However, annual inflation still stands at 236.7 percent and the economic slowdown sparked by the budget cuts has hit Argentines' pockets hard.

Brey told a local radio station that cabin crew earned 729,000 pesos ($730 at the official exchange rate) and ground crew members 500,000 pesos—half what they could make at some low-cost companies.

Aerolineas Argentinas said the strike was "untimely, abusive and out of context, promoted by union leaders in an irresponsible manner."

Milei's spokesman Manuel Adorni said that those striking would be "fined and sanctioned."

Milei had tried to privatize Aerolineas Argentinas as part of his sweeping economic reforms, but was forced to remove the company from the list of those to be privatized to get his measures through parliament earlier this year.

© 2024 AFP