Airlines from all around the world carried some 1.6 billion passengers on international regular flights during 2002 for a 1 percent growth as to the number of fliers transported per every flown mile the year before, according to stats handed over by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

For its part, international cargo transportation soared 2 percent during the course of the year compared to 2001, though it still remains 3 percent below the figures put up back in the year 2000.

The ongoing summertime tourist season in Argentina will come to a close with as many as 15.8 million tourists, a record high in the history of this industry in the country, and $1.9 billion worth of revenues based on booking numbers, as well as hotel and real-estate occupancy rates, official sources said.

A deal embracing a 6.25 percent wage hike put an end to a strike staged by Barbados’ tourist workers in demand of higher salaries. The agreement –expected to be in force for two years- was signed after long hours of negotiations between the Ministry of Labor and the sector’s trade union.

According to the official document, during the first year the industry’s employees will get a 3 percent wage increase with the remaining 3.25 percent coming in the second year.

The Dutch Arbitration Courthouse sentenced fellow air carrier KLM to indemnify Italian company Alitalia with 150 million euros on the heels of the May 2000 breakup that put an end to their mutual alliance dating back to November 1999.

Sources close to Alitalia said in Rome that the arbitration courthouse overrode KLM’s unilateral decision to terminate the alliance based on allegations that the Italian airline had hocked over privatization proceedings –the State owns 53 percent of it- and over the opening of the Malpensa Airport in Milan.

Latin America and Caribbean economies will put on the worst shrinking numbers of the last twenty years with a 1.1 percent overall plunge, according to a World Bank report issued yesterday in Washington.

The financial crisis in Argentina –the worst of all time in the country- and its ripple effects on neighboring nations like Uruguay and Paraguay, put growth on hold and pushed foreign investment down in the region for a fifth year in a row.

The Ecuadorian leisure industry is hoping to wrap up 2002 with a 6 percent increase compared to the year before, according to the nation’s Minister of Tourism Rocio Vazquez, who underscored her country’s assortment of tourist offers ranging from jungles and beaches to mountains and the Galapagos Islands.