Pan Am eyes new routes to Caribbean BY INA PAIVA CORDLE icordle@herald.com Pan American Airways is seeking to begin flying to the Dominican Republic from four cities -- including Miami -- as part of a plan to establish an affiliated airline to serve Latin America and the Caribbean. The third rendition of Pan Am -- now a low-cost carrier based in Portsmouth, N.H. -- has applied for route authority from the U.S. Department of Transportation to fly to Santo Domingo, Santiago, Punta Cana and Puerto Plata from Miami; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Newark, N.J.; and Portsmouth. The airline plans to operate 44 weekly scheduled flights, six days a week, beginning July 1, using its existing fleet of seven Boeing 727s. Pan Am is creating a separate carrier operating as Pan American World Airways, headquartered in the Dominican Republic, which would use a fleet of planes recently purchased from United Airlines. ''The thrust of our future will be in the Caribbean Basin, establishing a Pan American World Airways with the stepping-off place the Dominican Republic,'' said Dan Fortnam, Pan Am's vice president of sales and marketing. The arrangement would signal a return to Miami for the small airline with the storied name, nearly four years after Timothy Mellon pulled the carrier out of bankruptcy here. Pan Am said last June it would launch flights in August from Miami to San Juan and Orlando/Sanford but postponed the service indefinitely, due primarily to a lack of available planes at the time. Pan Am is taking delivery of 24 planes during the next few months from United and plans to fly 15 of them in the Latin operation and scrap the other nine for parts, Fortnam said. The planes, built in the early '80s, carry 149 passengers each. The Federal Aviation Administration rates the Dominican Republic a ''category 2'' country, meaning that it does not comply with international aviation safety standards. For that reason, the new carrier will not be able to fly to the United States and will rely on Pan American Airways for U.S. connections. Still, aviation consultant Bob Booth, chairman of Aviation Management Services, said the airline is smart to base its operation in the Dominican Republic and hire local flight crews. ''There is a need for a Dominican airline,'' Booth said. ``There is a void in the market, and they are going to fill it.'' Privately owned Pan Am was reorganized in June 1998 by the owners of Guilford Transportation Industries, majority owned by Mellon, a scion of one of America's oldest and wealthiest families. Since then, the reborn airline has focused on serving small, low-cost airports near major metropolitan areas. Today, Pan Am flies 25 daily flights from nine cities -- Bangor, Maine; Portsmouth; Worchester, Mass.; Allentown, Pa.; Baltimore; Gary, Ind.; Orlando/Sanford; San Juan; and Clearwater/St. Petersburg. The airline also operates commuter flights on Jetstreams to six destinations. By the end of April, Pan Am will also serve Naples, Fla., and Freeport, Grand Bahama, Fortnam said. At the time Mellon bought Pan Am's assets, he said his intention was to fly to Latin America and the Caribbean. He said he could afford to endure losses until the airline breaks even. Income statements filed with the Department of Transportation show Pan Am lost $7.4 million in 1999, $23 million in 2000 and $5.6 million for the first six months of 2001, the last period it was required to file financial information. ''Before this expansion came along, we were on track to be profitable by the end of this year, no later,'' Fortnam said. ``Now, with introducing new markets, new equipment, it's going to protract it out a bit.'' _________________________________________________________________ MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx