Hi JBravo,
Nice to know that there are people interested in our turf, down here in the south. Unfortunately, I don't have good news about VASP. Since Mr. Canhedo (a kind of Frank Lorenzo from the tropics) bought it from the state of São Paulo, things went straight down hill. VASP was a robust Airline with a strong domestic presence, with about 35% of the market. Under Canhedo management the whole company assets were dilapidate, the employees suffered most with the bean counters asking for more and more concessions. Duty time limitations were exceeded regularly (under presssure), vacations went unpaid, seniority existed only for the management types, aiplanes were dispatched with major glitches, etc. Today all the MD-11 fleet are gone (8 airplanes), as it is the majority of the B737-300. Currently they are flying 3 older A300B4s and a bunch of B737-200. Some B737-300 (4, I guess) remain flying the shuttle service between Rio and São Paulo. About 150 pilots have been fired, without receiving any kind of compensation. The last news that I have is that IATA clearing house is not accepting any tickets from them whatsoever. The reason why the others airlines don't buy VASP it's because they don't want to buy any more debts. Only the routes are worthwhile, but under our law they have about 1 year to restart service or lose them.
Regards
3holer
[This message has been edited by 3holer (edited 23 August 2000).]