Taking off.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)

The LATIN TRADE article on the proliferation, or lack thereof, of low-cost carriers in Latin America ("Flight Plan," March 2004) would do good to look beyond Gol and Aerolitoral. For its part, Gol has been widely successful in Brazil, and has started a popular "red-eye" program to compete with the low-cost bus sector.

Aerolitoral, meanwhile, is less a low-cost carrier than a regional component of the larger [Mexican aviation holding company] Cintra's umbrella. Perhaps a more effective comparison would have been with another Cintra member, Aerocaribe, which is being transformed into a low-cost leisure airline within Mexico.

In Chile, Sky Airlines is taking market share from behemoth LAN. To provide lower fares domestically, LAN matched [the competition] with its own carrier, LanExpress. While former airlines have had similar aspirations of succeeding at LAN's expense, Sky seems to have employed a more conservative flight plan of growth adding to stability. In the end, markets will decide what the markets will bear. But if early signals are any indication, both in the region and abroad, then Latin America is a fruitful region deserving of low-fare carriers.

Brian Rynott

Staten Island, New York

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