Southward a bright spot
Air traffic between the USA and the Caribbean/Latin America is poised to grow more strongly than in other regions, predicts IATA assistant director François Dormoy. Speaking at the Airline Business Network 2003 conference in Fort Lauderdale in early March, he singled out Venezuela, Peru and Mexico as leading the growth over the next five years. But Dormoy said IATA did not expect North American traffic to come back to 2000 levels "until at least 2005". Latin American specialist Bob Booth of AvGroup added that US-Latin traffic would be driven by ethnic traffic and by leisure as "North Americans discover the 'sleeping giant' of tourism".
Chicago challenge
Aeromexico has begun challenging long-established rival Mexicana on the lucrative route between Mexico City and Chicago O'Hare. Chicago is home to the largest Mexican-American community,
said Aeromexico's senior officer for North America Rolf Hoehn. The flight's overnight schedule will appeal to ethnic travellers, while its SkyTeam alliance with Delta Air Lines will attract business fliers.
Screening scramble
The rush to meet a congressionally mandated deadline to have airport screening equipment installed by the first day of 2003 has left some unfinished work, Boeing's airport-security programmes vice-president John Davidson told Network. "What we did in airports was not in all cases the prettiest solution, so we've got some clean-up work to do. The job is far from over," he said.
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Source: Airline Business
