South America
More than 50 of the poorest developing countries are in danger of defaulting on their debt and becoming effectively bankrupt unless the rich world offers urgent assistance, the head of the UN Development Programme has warned, The Guardian reported. Inflation, the energy crisis and rising interest rates are creating conditions where an increasing number of countries are in danger of default, with potentially disastrous impacts on their people, according to Achim Steiner, the UN’s global development chief.
LATAM Airlines Group and the Union of LATAM Pilots (SPL) in Chile reached an agreement on Wednesday, cooling off the possibility of a strike which was set to begin on Thursday, the Union said in a statement, Simple Flying reported. Having recently emerged from its chapter 11 bankruptcy process, LATAM quickly faced a new challenge, the possibility of an industrial action taken by its team of pilots. On Nov. 2, with a 99% overwhelming majority, the pilots in the company voted in favor of a strike.
Latam Airlines and its main pilots’ union in Chile have reached an agreement staving off a threatened strike, the union said in a statement on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The Union of Latam Pilots (SPL), which says it represents 313 of the airline's nearly 500 pilots, voted almost unanimously last week to begin a strike, leaving a window for a mediation process mandated by Chilean law.
LATAM Airlines, South America's largest carrier, reported on Tuesday a narrower third-quarter net loss of $296 million, the company said in a statement, partly hit by high fuel prices, Reuters reported. The Chile-based airline's quarterly loss this year compares to a $694 million loss during the same three-month period last year. LATAM's revenue during the July to September period rose 97% to total $2.587 billion compared to the third quarter last year. The airline, created by the 2012 merger of Chile's LAN with Brazilian rival TAM, operates units in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Peru.
Colombia's civil aviation authority on Tuesday formally opposed a planned merger between Avianca, the country's flag carrier, and budget airline Viva, saying the transaction represented a risk to competition, Reuters reported. Avianca and Viva in April signed a deal to merge into one group and unify their economic rights as part of a strategy to strengthen both airlines after the global aviation industry was battered by the COVID-19 pandemic. The civil aviation authority's decision tentatively blocks the merger, but it said the airlines can appeal.