Aerolíneas Argentinas (AR, Buenos Aires Jorge Newbery) backer, the Argentine government, has come under fire from local media after a government gazette last week revealed that the carrier had received an additional ARS955.6million (USD112.18million) in funding from the Argentine treasury despite forecasts it will make a ARS4billion (USD469.59million) loss for its current financial year.

Argentina's TN News network claims the carrier, despite sustaining heavy losses since renationalization by Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's government in 2008, has continued to recruit employees with the latest figure showing the workforce to now total 11,400 up from 10,782 at the last count.

In the face of previous criticism over the airline's bloated deficit, Mariano Recalde, the president of Aerolíneas Argentinas, has defended the carrier's labour policy likening its role in the social fabric of society to that of schools and hospitals.

"They [critics] dislike the State´s intervention in the economy, that the Government decides to sustain a public service, although it may not be profitable from the commercial point of view. They have the same opinion on schools and hospitals," he told the Buenos Aires Herald.

Recalde has claimed a weakening Argentine Peso has eroded gains in the carrier's revenues leading to the losses. The carrier's recovery, he has said, will not hinge on route rationalization or labour force reductions, but rather on expanding revenue inflows through network and fleet expansion.