The Syrian Tourism Ministry informed in September about the creation of an air route between Damascus and Caracas, though further details are yet to be defined. This new route will include a stopover in a European capital through an agreement with INAC and Conviasa.

The decision of the LIAT Board to kick off formal negotiations in an effort to merge with Caribbean Star Airlines has been okayed by the chairmen of both boards. Jean Stewart Holder, Chairman of the LIAT Board of Directors and R. Allen Stanford, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Caribbean Star Airlines both approved the deal.

Budget airline Ryanair named Madrid as its eighteenth European base last week and said it would start flying from the Spanish capital by mid-November. The Irish low-cost carrier said in a statement it would fly from Madrid to 14 destinations including Dublin, Paris, Brussels, Oslo, East Midlands and Bournemouth in the UK and Gothenburg and Malmo in Sweden.

Lufthansa is heading for new records after the third quarter 2006 with the highest ever booking numbers in the first nine months of a year. Lufthansa Cargo is also still on track after posting a marked rise in transported tonnage and utilization. From January through September, Lufthansa carried 40.2 million passengers, an increase of 3.6 percent from the first nine months of 2005. The passenger load factor fell fractionally to 75.4 percent because capacity, up by 1.2 percent.

Caribbean Star, based in Antigua, took delivery of a Q300 Dash-8 Model 315, completing a year-long expansion program that saw the carrier add four new Q300s to its fleet. Skip Barnette, president and CEO of Caribbean Star and its sister carrier, Caribbean Sun, said that “the smell of a new car is nice, but the smell of a new aircraft is on another level, particularly here in the Caribbean where it’s been several years since new aircraft have been put into service.”

Two international airlines have given the assurance that they will be operating non stop flights to Grenada during the coming year. As of December 2006, Excel Airways will be operating a non stop flight between Grenada and the United Kingdom while Condor Airlines of Germany will commence its year round service in November.