Dutch airline KLM Iberia reaped revenues for 100 million euros in the course of the past twelve months (from April 2002 to March 2003), good enough for a 15 percent spike compared to the previous such period. “And all this has happened regardless of the ongoing crisis,” said Fernando Bessa, KLM’s senior director for Spain and Portugal.
Cubana de Aviacion and Chile’s International Network Group S.A. have just signed an agreement to forge a joint-ventured travel agency.
A year after the strengthening of Summa Alliance, the company’s president Juan Emilio Posada announced a reshuffling plan aimed at grappling with the economic crisis the firm is going through. The action package to make Summa keep its head above the water includes flight cutbacks, timetable overhauls, the return of seven aircraft and a 30 percent slash in the number of collaborators.
The leisure industry topped Panama’s hard-currency makers in 2002 with a final tally of $678.8 million, $53.1 million more than in 2001and way over the earnings churned out by operations in the Colon Free Trade Zone and the Panama Canal, the Panamanian Tourism Institute (IPAT) reported today.
A grand total of 800, 161 visitors came to Panama in 2002. The country’s main gateways were the Tocumen International Airport, chased closely by the Balboa and Cristobal seaports, and Paso Canoa on the Costa Rican border, IPAT officials stated.
Hotel fares ratcheted up 4.6 percent in April compared to the same month in 2002 and earnings per room jumped 2.4 percent over the past year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) reported in a press release.
Dominican president Hipolito Mejia okayed a decree for the country’s Tourism Department and the Public Enterprise Reform Commission to start out a partnership between the State and the national private sector to put the Dominican Aviation Company (DAC) –grounded since 1987- back in the air.
The initiative is part of a project aimed at peppering up the local leisure industry that this year hopes to capture 3.3 million visitors and has turned out to be a key player for the national economy.