The Ghost of Bankruptcy Lurks Uruguay´s Pluna Airways

Carlos Bouzas, president and CEO of Uruguay´s Pluna Airways, warned this week the company could go belly up a few months from now unless some urgent actions are taken.

As we speak, the Uruguayan government holds 48 percent of all shares, while Brazil´s VARIG has been controlling the remaining 49 percent and the front office over the past ten years.

For over a decade, Plana has been swaying on the brink of bankruptcy, a situation that has prompted Mr. Bouzas to suggest the creation of a joint venture without one side of the business partnership exerting managerial and administrative functions, while the other watches everything from the sidelines.

Mr. Bouzas recognized the Brazilian execs are deeply interested in cutting a fresh deal in order to move the alliance beyond the June 27 deadline.

At the same time, he insisted to be interested in getting heavily involved in all operations and advancing negotiations with VARIG in an effort to come up with a true fifty-fifty partnership between the two parties. "In other words, the management will no longer be in the hands of the Brazilians.