In 1940 began operating a public airline that, over the years, became the only one capable of providing the service to promote, i.e. the transfer of passengers and cargo from small and remote areas to commercial nodes and cities to contribute to the work of key companies. It is the Airline of the Federal Government (LADE, for its acronym in Spanish), a venture that according to the General Audit Office (AGN) meets its goal, although materials, infrastructure and personnel are from others.

The Watchdog issued a report on the management of LADE, approved this year from data collected between June 2008 and October 2009, which states that teams and airline employees actually are not its responsibility, but they rely on different sectors of the Air Force, as Operations Command. The Air Force, strictly speaking, is the one that decides on the availability of ships, crews shaping, and responsibility for security, maintenance and fuel supply.

How does this affect LADE? The Air Force also assigned to the airline flight hours, depending on budgetary availability. The AGN says that this forecast "generally suffers cuts affecting" the operation of the company, however, retains responsibility tracing routes, management authorizations to the Ministry of Transport, the sale of tickets and the organization related activities, such as ramp, baggage handlers and caterers.

Airplanes and Internet

The AGN argues that "the aircrafts made available to LADE are old and operate inefficiently." In fact, the Fokker F 28, one of the most important -used for transportation of passenger, has the highest cost per flight hour. "In part –says the report -, this started to change with the addition of SAAB aircrafts."

The auditors also stated that "in most airports where LADE operates, the entity does not have internet access, which means that the release of the ticket is made manually and documentation is transferred to the branch (so) they enter that data into the system. One of the terminals in this situation is the Jorge Newbery Airport.

Budget

On the other hand, the airline budget "is not used in its entirety for activities related to air transport development and, in turn, there are features that LADE carries out but financed with items under other programs in the Air Force by compensation for (their) financial management service," says the report.

Among these benefits stand out the service rationing Condor Building and catering and flights for the Presidency of the Nation’s events, which are "parallel to the mission of LADE activities, whose management is not included in (their) budgetary targets, or formulating goals," completes the Auditors.
From these data, the inspection agency recommended the airline "make presentations that are necessary for the budget to include all financing of its activities, and identify and apply the correct ownership of the items included (in their budget) and not linked to the activity of LADE, such as financing of peacekeeping missions."

Mutual Acknowledgment and Praise

For the Audit, the objective of LADE was reached on the margins of delays and cancellations on flights, events that occurred that "were not attributable" to the airline. The report clarifies that the success of the enterprise is recorded despite performing tasks such as catering for Presidency, which "are not included among its objectives or have expression in the formulation of their physical budget."

Meanwhile, the release of the airline spared no praise for the control body. -textual- From LADE they said: "It stands out above all the correctness and professionalism of the affected (the preparation of the report of the AGN) personnel, whose intervention aimed at all times to help improve management that, as noted, reaches its objectives. -more- In that sense, I turn to report that measures to incorporate the report's recommendations on all aspects that are direct responsibility of the Directorate General "are in process instrumentation.”