A legal inquiry has been launched into allegations that the head of Argentina’s national logistics directorate (Dirección Nacional de Logística y Equipamiento Federal - DNLEF) was involved in a scheme that allowed private jets to use the Argentine Air Force/Fuerza Aérea Argentina ramp at Buenos Aires Jorge Newbery, despite said installations being restricted to national and foreign state aircraft transporting high-level delegations.

First reported by the local newspaper El Clarín, several companies, including insurance firm Grupo Sancor Seguros, US oil giant Chevron Corporation, and local bank Grupo Macro, are alleged to have paid fees ranging between USD4,000 daily and USD25,000 per month to land at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery, and use the military ramp for its executives instead of using Buenos Aires Ministro Pistarini or San Fernando, AR, two airports serving Buenos Aires but located far away from the city centre.

Argentine lawyer Santiago Dupuy filed a complaint in May against Florencia Gastaldi, the DNLEF's general director who resigned from her post earlier this month after facing allegations of negligence, corruption in the allocation of a tender to outsource the maintenance for the country’s presidential jet, B757-200 ARG-01 (msn 29306), and wrongdoing in allocating Aeroparque's aircraft parking bays, the local daily La Nación reported.

While at the job, among other tasks, Gastaldi was in charge of organising and coordinating the Argentinian presidential fleet's operations and the use of Aeroparque. An Argentinian court has started an inquest to the illegal parking scheme case but has not levelled any accusations against Gastaldi yet. However, it is seeking evidence to verify whether or not military hangars were used for parking private planes and how the fees paid were distributed.

El Clarín reported that US company Chevron used a Gulfstream Aerospace G650ER, N1901G (msn 6257), which was authorised to land and use the air force’s Aeroparque ramp. However, it did not specify when these flights took place, and ADS-B data does not track N1901G. According to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the bizjet's certificate was issued in 2017. It is owned by Chevron USA Inc.

"Chevron complies with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate," said the company in a statement to ch-aviation.

The rules for taxiing, movement, and parking at Aeroparque's military ramp state that it is open all day long “for the exclusive use of national and foreign State aircraft that transport authorities (Head of State, governors, secretaries of State, military authorities, and security forces). Said aircraft are authorised to operate and park according to availability after coordinating [...] with no less than two hours prior to taking off".

Grupo Sancor Seguros told El Clarín that in 2014, they were allowed to land at Aeroparque using its private plane. However, after regulations changed in 2015, the company rented a hangar from Royal Class, a private bizav operator, at the airport.

However, in 2018, the insurance company reportedly operated an international flight from Jorge Newbery (the insurance firm has a Fixed Base Operator, FBO, in Sunchales but isn;t purportedly allowed to operate international flights from there). The flight was authorised by Fernando Villaverde, flight coordinator at the time, who confirmed to local media that the military ramp was used for parking for private citizens and charged fees to do so. However, he denied any wrongdoing by Grupo Sancor Seguros at the time.

ch-aviation has reached out to Grupo Macro for comment. Grupo Macro was unreachable.