Nuevo Continente Replaces Aerocontinente
Peruvian airline Nuevo Continente –formerly known as Aerocontinente- resumed operations Friday following a ten-day suspension. The renamed carrier will get back up in the air with a ten-flight, 500-passenger schedule.
Nuevo Continente President Miguel Halabi explained the number of flights will be steadily on the rise until it completes the 4,000 passengers a day the company was flying before the Peruvian government mothballed it last July 12.
The air carrier’s first flight took off Friday for the city of Cuzco, Peru’s premier travel destination.
Trips to Cuzco stepped up in recent days not only as a result of the high-peak season, but also because the city’s stadium will host the bronze medal match of the Americas Soccer Cup between the Colombian and Uruguayan teams.
Ruling out rumors that Nuevo Continente would start making international flights, Mr. Halabi said the air company will “stick steadfastly to the domestic market. Period.”
The U.S. Treasury Department is looking into possible ties of the Zevallos family –the airline owners- with drug smuggling operations and cartels.
The U.S. government put the name of Aerocontinente’s founder Fernando Zevallos on the list of the FBI’s most wanted criminals. Furthermore, Mr. Zevallos is being probed in Peru on money laundering charges.
The American government’s decision prompted the shutdown of the air carrier’s commercial operations in that country. In addition to that, a series of managerial misconducts and the company’s failure to renew its insurance policy led Peruvian authorities to ground the company altogether.
