AA here to stay Express 06.25.03 American Airlines top executive for Latin America and the Caribbean has=20 promised regional tourism officials the airline=92s strongest winter and=20 summer schedules in recent years, although the carrier continues to reel=20 from the impact of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States and the US= =20 war on Iraq. =93The people of American Airlines are not victims, they are=20 winners. They are coming back,=94 Peter Dolara told a banquet of the=20 Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) in New York recently. =93Our summer=20 schedule will be the biggest in the last three years and our winter=20 schedule will be the biggest in the last five years,=94 added Dolara, who is= =20 AA=92s senior vice-president for Miami, Latin America and the Caribbean.= Like=20 most of the world=92s airlines, American has been in a tail-spin since=20 terrorists in September 2001 hijacked four of its jets and used three of=20 them as missiles to bring down the World Trade Center in New York and=20 damage the Pentagon in Washington. The fourth jet crashed killing several=20 persons. With the terror attacks making Americans and others wary of air travel and= =20 the problem exacerbated by the America=92s strike against Saddam Hussein=92s= =20 Iraq, American has lost nearly US$6 billion in the past two-and-a-half=20 years, including $3.9 billion in 2002. It has been attempting to avoid=20 bankruptcy by cutting expenses and asking for give-backs from employees in= =20 a search for up to US$4 billion in permanent cost reductions. It has cut=20 thousands of jobs. As part of the cost-cutting American in February cut its= =20 non-stop daily flight between New York and Kingston Jamaica. It, however,=20 still operates five flights a day to the island=97two each between=20 Kingston/Miami and Montego Bay/Miami and one between Montego and New York.= =20 Flights in and out of Trinidad and Tobago were not affected. Dolara, in a=20 short speech in which he received a CTO lifetime achievement award, did not= =20 say when the full schedules would be published or how radically they would= =20 change, but insisted that American Airlines was intent on maintaining a=20 strong relationship with the region. =93American is committed to the=20 Caribbean,=94 he said. =93We will be working with governments to bring back= the=20 business. We are here to stay.=94 *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************