On the heels of a past year that closed with $43.8 million worth of revenues and the strengthening of the carrier’s reshuffling, Argentine Airlines (AA) is now weighing to pour some $190 million into its own benefit, said Antonio Mata, chairman of AA Executive Committee.

Major indicators show that the company tallied $658 million in service earnings for a blistering 59.4 percent growth from 2002. In the same breath, AA flew 39.8 percent more passengers, jumping from 3,687,264 fliers in 2002 to 5,153,959 travelers last year.

Electronic retail shopping in Brazil topped $1.8 billion in 2003, up 23.7 percent from 2002, according to stats tabbed by E-Consulting, a specialized consulting office, and revealed by the Brazilian Chamber of Electronic Commerce (BCEC).

In 2003, 3.4 million Brazilians shopped online, with 1.7 million new e-customers buying items on the Web for the first time. “This figure accounts for a 19.5 percent of the total 17.4 million netizens in the country, a clear indication that this trend is on the rise,” BCEC Chairman Cid Torquato said.

In a much-anticipated ruling, the U.S. Trademark Appealing Bureau (TTAB) turned down a motion to cancel the Havana Club trademark in that country, a move that automatically upholds the registration renewal presented by Havana Club Holding (HCH), a joint venture founded by Pernod Ricard S.A. back in 1993.

The legal scuffle started out with a demand for the cancellation of the Havana Club trademark registration in U.S. soil filed by the Bacardi Co. on the basis that such registration had been made under fraudulent circumstances.

A senior Air Jamaica official is predicting a good performance for the carrier in 2004 based on its overall showing including moderate financial growth last year.

Vice President of Marketing Michael Going said that the company has been making steady strides during the course of last year and was well positioned for a productive take off during 2004.

"We are on a very strong road to rebuilding the carrier to pre-911 positions both in terms of our financial and operating performances and our position in the market place", Going told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Christened with champagne by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, EMBRAER, the world’s fourth-largest airplane maker, unveiled its new mid-size airliner in an effort to capture markets that use big commercial aircraft at the expense of costly operations.

At a price tag of $30 million per unit, the EMBRAER 190 can seat up to 108 passengers. JetBlue Airways Corporation, a U.S. company, has already bought a hundred of those planes.

The Louvre Museum of Paris, France, came in last year for 5.73 million visitors compared to 5.78 million who walked past the turnstiles in 2002. For the museum’s management, “these figures are welcome news amid a difficult situation marked by a tourist slowdown.”