20080111 - South America - Buenos Aires Airport

On January 11 we were due to take a plane from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Santiago, Chile. Our flight was at 8:30 so we were up at 5:00 to arrive at the airport 2 hours early. We arrived at the airport and joined a very long line which appeared to be moving extremely slowly, but was moving so we were not too concerned. As we were standing the line gradually came to a complete stop. We became very concerned that we would miss our flight so Rich went and changed our tickets to an afternoon flight and we got out of line to eat some breakfast. When we returned to the line it was even longer and still did not appear to be moving. One at a time we went to the front of the line to see what was going on. Earlier I had seen some very angry passengers in a section of the airport near our check-In counters. Later they had moved to another section of the check-in counters and now they were sitting on the counters and luggage check-in areas. As I found English speaking people I discovered that these were Bogotá passengers whose flight had been cancelled at 7:00AM and they had shut down the Check In counters for Airline Argentina (our airline). It’s nerve wracking to be in a situation where something is going on, everyone is getting excited and as a result you cannot understand anyone. At this point all the Airline Argentina and police people had disappeared from sight. Rich immediately went and booked us on a later flight with another airline and eventually (11 hours after we arrived) we left the Buenos Aires Airport.

The rest of the Story:
In Santiago we watched a news program that spoke of the 2 day passenger riots in the Buenos Aires Airport. We experienced the first day of the ‘riot’, luckily we had the forethought and finances to purchase a ticket from another airline. On the second day all of the airlines were shut down for a period of time. Here's a copy of the story -

"Stranded travelers tossed computers in the air, shoved security guards and attacked ticketing counters at Buenos Aires' Ezeiza international airport Saturday after Aerolineas Argentinas suspended most of its flight there.
Tempers flared as hundreds of travelers awaited word on suspended and canceled flights. Aerolineas Argentinas attributed delays to a labor conflict involving a pilots' union and a union for airport tarmac workers. But union officials said the disruptions were caused by overbooked flights.
Ticketing counters were abandoned in the afternoon after passengers assaulted a worker at a check-in desk, said Maria de los Angeles Aguer, a spokeswoman for the Association of Aeronautical Personnel.
The strike for higher wages had sparked delays at the airport in a Buenos Aires suburb since Friday.
"There's no one from the company, no one is showing their face or telling us when we're going to fly. We're stranded with children and the elderly," a woman whose flight to Venezuela was canceled on Friday told local TV.
Aerolineas Argentinas is 95 percent controlled by Spain's Marsans, with the remainder held by the Argentine state."