Beginning on September 30, all foreigners entering the U.S. should fully comply with the requirements established by the U.S.-Visit program that obliges visitors to have digital fingerprints and photographs taken before immigration clearance is granted. Caribbean News Digital has learned that citizens from 21 countries that still have visas stamped on their ordinary passports will have until October 26 to get e-documents before traveling to the U.S.

Air traffic over Brazilian skies has been looking stronger than ever over the past twelve months. Since October 2003, there´s been a steady increase on a monthly basis and projections point to a double-digits spike by the end of 2004.

Carles Bonjorn Chumillas is now the new sales manager of Mar i Terra, a hotel chain that owns half a dozen lodgings in Catalonia and has plans in the offing to add some more in the near future. Mr. Chumillas has college degrees in Hotel Management and Tourism at the Joviat de Manresa School, plus a master degree in Tourism Communication and Marketing at Barcelona’s Mediterrani University.

Spanish airline Spanair will start flying more often to Latin America next year with new connections. The company´s president and CEO, Gonzalo Pascual, explained the front office is weighing possibilities to open three or four new routes to target the segments of business travelers and sunbathers. Mr. Pascual added that his company has no intention whatsoever to compete with rival Spanish carriers Iberia, Air Europa and Air Madrid, but rather try to take up the slack of passengers willing to fly from Madrid to the Americas.

Spain´s airline Air Madrid has just commenced a series of nonstop flights between Panama City and the Spanish capital that, as local officials put it, will have a positive impact on European trippers who will also benefit from Iberia´s much-anticipated flights in October. Air Madrid, that operates a couple of weekly direct flights on Mondays and Fridays between Panama and Spain using Airbus A330-200 jetliners, announced that the new airfares for the tourist market will be 40 percent off the regular price.

A new codeshare flight between Spain’s Iberia Airlines and Colombia-based Avianca Airways –beginning on September 20- will allow passengers from both countries to travel either way with just one plane ticket in hand. The announcement was made by the Colombian air company in a press release and states that from now on Avianca’s customers could use Iberia to fly to Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and to the French capital.