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On 9/8/2002 3:25:45 PM JFK777 wrote:
DEAR Mark in Miami,
You ae right that service from Europe to Lat AM has been cut, especially Lufthansa doesn't fly to Ecuador, Peru, or Bogota any more. However, service from the Northwest LAT Am( PERU, Ecuador,Colombia and Venezuela) has been cut but not from the southeast( Brazil, Argentina, and Chile). These countries do to their greater distance from MIami has more trade with Europe( Argentina did) then the USA. Air France, British Airways, Lufthansa, and Iberia fly almost daily or more to GRU, GIG and EZE. SCL is usually a tag leg from EZE. The theory that all these people from these deep Lat AM cities fly to Miami to connect to Europe is a little long in tooth. If I lived in one of these major Lat Am cities I could get to Europe on a flight nonstop to a major European airport and then connect to where I needed to go. Even the South American airlines, especailly Varig, fly to many of the major cities in Europe daily from their hub airports. Lan Chile flies daily SCL-MAD on A340. Aerolineas Argentinas flies to Madrid daily, or more. Tam flies to CDG daily and FRA a few times weekly. Europe is well served from the deep South American Metropolis's, this the same reason why UA flies only to these major cities and not the lesser north south american cities. The money in South America is in Argentina, Chile and Brazil (even in these times).
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In recent years (months even) SCL has lost Swiss, British Airways, and KLM; Buenos Aires has lost KLM; Rio de Janiero has lost Lufthansa; and TAM has ended Frankfurt and Zurich (which was daily). Rio has no non-stop service to London; Santiago's only non-stop service is Madrid, and otherwise they have Lufthansa and Air France. Buenos Aires, with the exception of the fact that they do not have daily London service, is pretty strong, so is Sao Paulo. Rio de Janiero is not that strong to Europe, but Varig has been improving that a little lately. As for where the money is in LatAm, right now it is in Ecuador, and Bolivia, because of how underserved it is, is always a huge money generator. Not to say that Brazil/Argentina/Chile aren't big moneymakers, because, as you said yourself, even in these tough times, they are still near the top. And, actually, Caracas is one of the best and strongest European markets from LatAm. British Airways to LGW, Lufthansa to FRA, Air France to CDG, TAP to LIS (as well as a Portuguese island community whose name escapes me), Iberia to MAD and TFS, Avensa to MAD and Santiago Compastela, Aeropostal/Air Europa to MAD, Alitalia to CCS, and KLM to AMS.