Bolivian airline Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (LAB) is “on the verge of bankruptcy,” its president said, as a worsening financial and labor crisis left the airline threatening Monday to cancel national and international flights again. In a television announcement Sunday night, Ernesto Asbun also called on workers to halt recent strikes, warning that if the situation did not reverse itself quickly, LAB, which has some 1,500 employees, would be forced to cease flights to Madrid, Miami and Washington.

Virgin Atlantic Airways has agreed a new reciprocal codeshare deal with Air China (CA) to enable its passengers to enjoy codeshare connections between the services of the two carriers. Effective on flights from 1 July 2006, the agreement with Air China means that Virgin Atlantic passengers will be able to purchase flights between London Heathrow and Beijing, complimenting Virgin Atlantic´s daily flights into Shanghai.

Surinam Airways, the national airline of Suriname, has chosen Worldspan for a five-year hosting partnership. In addition to hosting the airline´s operations at Worldspan´s global data center, Worldspan will also provide Surinam Airways with Worldspan Meridian(SM) technologies, sophisticated systems to manage the airline´s mission critical daily operations, including reservation and inventory management, flight operations, airport passenger processing, electronic ticketing, global fares and pricing requirements, and more.

Azteca Airlines announced that it has selected JFK´s Terminal 4 for its first East Coast gateway, joining 50 airlines already flying from the airport´s only privately-operated terminal. Azteca will begin its New York operations on March 14, 2006, offering three flights a week to Monterrey and Puebla, Mexico. “We are pleased to bring our service to the Big Apple and particularly to John F. Kennedy Airport´s Terminal 4, where our passengers will have the best travel experience possible,” said Sergio Garrido, director of Azteca Airlines. “This new route will increase tourism to these two beautiful cities in Mexico.”

Iberia has signed contracts with the Venezuelan airline Santa Barbara and the Peruvian Star Peru, allowing the two carriers to use the Spanish airline´s reservations management system, which improves service to passengers. To manage reservations, passenger inventories, and invoices, among other tasks Venezuela/s Santa Barbara has used this system since the beginning of March and the Peru/s Star will use it starting in May. This brings to 17 the number of companies using Iberia´s IT systems.

Delta Airlines, which aims to become the number-two airline to Latin America and the Caribbean in terms of flights and destinations served, expanded its coverage of the region by adding more flights. Delta´s growth in the Latin American market exceeded 30 percent last year, according to Whitehurst. “This is critically important because of the increased commerce and trade we can broker between regions of the world,” he said.