Crédit Suisse has evaluated the net worth of Aerolineas Argentinas and partner airline Austral and come up with a sum, 350 million dollars, that Argentina is arguing is massively inflated. According to MercoPress, Secretary Ricardo Jaime says that the airlines’ actual value is a negative net worth of 600 million dollars because the airline has been consistently losing money for a long time now.As the Argentine government, which has agreed to buy their ailing flagship airline, sits down with the Spanish company Marsans to discuss the status of their takeover, the price may be a sensitive topic.Marsans, with such a high estimate from Crédit Suisse, may wish to make a demand against Argentina for re-nationalizing the airline, even though the government has, in some people’s eyes, saved Marsans from owning a failing airline.

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Aerolineas Argentinas, the flagship airline of the nation and former national business, has been reacquired officially now that the Senate has voted in its favor.According to the BBC News, Christina Kirchner bought the airline—and its enormous debt—from the Spanish Company Grupo Marsans in July and the decision was initially greeted with a lot of enthusiasm by Argentines.Many remembered the hay days of the airlines when it still belonged to Argentina and was known for its quality service and on-time departures.Now perhaps this legacy will be rebuilt, but the problems with labor and with full costs (which currently plague most airlines) will make it hard to get it out of debt and running smoothly once again.

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Aerolineas Argentinas has been through a lot on the last several months, and at the moment the Argentine senate is discussing how to re-nationalize the business.Despite the changes within the business—or perhaps because of them—Aerolineas is more on time now than it has been in the past 20 months.According to the Clarín, 74.1 percent of domestic flights were on-time and 65.2 percent of international flights.Even late flights were, on average, only around 30 minutes delayed, a remarkable improvement from the relative chaos of the airline in the past year.For the same month last year, domestic flights left on time only 27 percent of the time, international flights 18.It is expected that the Senate debate will end with the government approving the reacquisition of what was formerly a state-owned airline in the 90s.

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There have been talks over the last several weeks of Argentina nationalizing Aerolineas Argentinas, and now the sale is finalized. Marsans, the Spanish company that owned the airline, sold it to the government for an undisclosed sum. According to the BBC, the company was losing one million dollars a day on the airline and leaves Aerolineas with a massive debt of 900 million dollars. 70 percent of Argentines polled said that they were in favor of the government nationalizing the airline. It is unclear how the government will turn the airline around to make it profitable, but they are beginning by carrying out a full audit of the company.

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The Spanish travel company Marsans agreed to sell they stake in the airlineAerolinas Argentinas to the Argentine government.According to Reuters, the sale comes after an extended period of problems with the airline including strikes, complaints about poor service, wage delays, and debt.Aerolineas currently runs 80 percent of all domestic flights, making it an important service for Argentines as well as traveling foreigners. In order to aid the airline, the government paid 16 million dollars in unpaid wages to keep flights going.In the next 90 days, Marsans and the government will discuss the selling price as well as what to do with the company’s debt.

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