Air Jamaica has returned to the Eastern Caribbean on April 16 with six weekly flights to Grenada and Barbados from Kingston, Jamaica, and New York, but still there are other destinations to which it has not resumed its service. On March 18 Air Jamaica suspended flights to the region due to an accelerated maintenance schedule required by the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority that acted following an order of the US Federal Aviation Agency.

Carlos Bouzas, president and CEO of Uruguay´s Pluna Airways, warned this week the company could go belly up a few months from now unless some urgent actions are taken. As we speak, the Uruguayan government holds 48 percent of all shares, while Brazil´s VARIG has been controlling the remaining 49 percent and the front office over the past ten years.

The quality of airline service in the U.S. deteriorated in 2004 after rising each of the three previous years, according to the 15th annual Airline Quality Rating report released this week. The authors, professors Brent Bowen of the University of Nebraska-Omaha and Dean Headley of Wichita State University in Wichita, predict that service quality will continue declining as passenger demand and congestion pass pre-Sept. 11-attack levels.

Aeromexico is planning to raise its offer of intercontinental flights by as much as 32 percent in the first quarter of 2006 with the addition of two brand-new Boeing 777-200 ER jetliners. In all, the Mexican carrier has bought sixteen Boeing aircraft over the past couple of years and the two newcomers will eventually round out the company´s fleet.

The Marsans Group is willing to waste no time at all and put 40 percent ofAerolineas Argentinas´ shares on the block. The accusations made by the Argentine government (one of the company´s shareholders) about the latest spreadsheet balance are hampering any efforts to place AA on the stock market. However, Marsans´ executives hope to reach an agreement anytime soon. AA´s Spanish owners stressed earlier this week they have plans in the offing to flow Argentinean private cash into the air carrier without losing its grip on management.

Two regional airlines are offering special discounted fares for the 7th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development (STC-7) to be held in Tobago under the main theme of Keeping the Right Balance - Sustainable Tourism Through Diversity. The Trinidad and Tobago carrier, BWIA West Indies Airways is providing discounted roundtrip tickets from seven gateways in the US and the Caribbean to Tobago, while the intra-Caribbean carrier, LIAT offers special rates from 15 regional states for the April 26-29 conference, the Caribbean Tourism Organization has informed.