A few weeks from now, the Venezuelan government will officially launch Conviasa, a new airline that´s expected to generate as many as 870 full-time positions and 7,900 part-time jobs, said Ricardo Sanguino, chairman of the Venezuelan Congressional Budget Subcommittee. The company´s capital will be bankrolled with state funds coming from oil exports. With that aim in mind, execs have just opened a mutual account for $16 million in the Bank of Economic and Social Development, and named Petroleos de Venezuela the account bookkeeper and Conviasa the main beneficiary.

Low-cost carrier Air Madrid will add a couple of countries to its list of destinations next July 12. With the addition of Ecuador and Panama, the fledgling Spanish airline will be flying to seven Iberian-American nations in all. The partnership´s CEO and third-largest stockholder, Herminio Gil, announced Air Madrid´s intentions to start flying to Ecuador and Panama as soon as July 12.

Animatur, a company specialized in providing entertainment and leisure services, has just appointed Ana Villa as its new marketing director in the Department of Events. Mrs. Villa will from now on be in charge of opening new business routes, enhancing the portfolio of customers and pitching a hand in the implementation of creation and production systems good enough to ease marketing strategies and make the most of both human and material resources.

For Jacqueline de Sousa Leite, counselor on social affairs for the Brazilian state of Bahia, efforts to stave off sexual tourism in any country call for awareness and information campaigns. And that´s exactly what Brazilian authorities are determined to do. On a recent visit to Madrid, Mrs. Sousa explained her country is determined to put an end to this practice by targeting abuses against women and minors. “Men involved in sexual tourism don´t come looking for prostitutes, but rather for a free chance to take advantage of women by means of misleading practices. These women are usually lured through tour guides or false pledges of marriage, and they wind up being abused,” Mrs. Sousa went on to say.

As part of Iberia Airlines´ new plan, the Spanish air carrier is planning to save millions of euros by slashing commissions paid to travel agencies. The entire plan foresees savings in the neighborhood of 350 and 400 million euros. Beginning on July 1, travel agencies will only collect 2 percent in commissions, a figure that will skid to just one percent in January 2005. Travel agencies are right now getting a 3 percent slice of all plane tickets sold for Iberia-operated flights.

Beginning in July and driven by an increasingly larger demand, Air Europa will put more weekly flights to Mexico´s Cancun, jumping from three planeloads of passengers a week (Monday, Thursday and Saturday) to five (Friday and Sunday, too). The Madrid-Cancun-Madrid flight uses 263-seat Boeing 767 jetliners, offering 245 tourist-class seats and 18 business-class accommodations.