MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay could attempt sponsoring new flag air carrier, but again financing is not clear

Lopez Mena who runs the ferry links between Uruguay and Argentina has proposed the new scheme

The Uruguayan government announced the creation of an inter-ministerial task force to consider a proposal to “resume air connectivity” of the country following on a proposal from Argentine businessman Juan Carlos Lopez Mena who owns sea, river and air link companies between Argentina and Uruguay.

The decision comes in the aftermath of the liquidation of Uruguay’s flag air carrier Pluna and the auction of seven of its aircraft this week in an operation with many pending questions and for which the opposition is summoning several ministers to explain what is happening to Parliament.

According to a Thursday release from Government House, following the meeting of Lopez Mena with President Jose Mujica, and the presentation of a practical business plan which includes the future of the recently auctioned Pluna aircraft, acquired by a Spanish charter company Cosmo, “a multi ministerial task force will address the technical and legal aspects of the initiative”.

During the meeting Mujica and Lopez Mena allegedly discussed the road map of the business plan which includes making use of the seven former Pluna aircraft purchased by Cosmo on Monday for 137 million dollars. Cosmo under the terms of the auction has until the end of the month to complete payment and can do whatever it wishes with them: from chartering, selling or fly them to Europe.

Earlier in the day Lopez Mena small airline BQB which makes daily flights between Montevideo and Buenos Aires said that it was in talks with Cosmo to ensure “Uruguay’s air connectivity” and the necessary conditions so that the country can again have a flag air carrier.

BQB plans to cover several of Pluna frequencies, and contract some of the former staff. Among the cities it plans to fly to are: Sao Paulo, Rio do Janeiro, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegre in Brazil; Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia and Santiago de Chile, hopefully sometime after next December 15.

On Thursday a Montevideo local newspaper published a picture of Lopez Mena, the Cosmo representative and Economy minister Fernando Lorenzo during a supposedly work lunch, on Wednesday, the day before the business plan was officially presented.

Another media revealed that the 13.6 million dollars bank collateral presented by Cosmo to participate in the auction was actually sponsored by Lopez Mena and done through the Uruguayan government main bank, Banco Republica. The bank holds no record on Cosmo performance which was only started in 2011.

Last 9 July Pluna went bankrupt and a week later the ruling coalition in the Uruguayan parliament pushed through the liquidation of the company because of its critical financial situation which had mounting debts of well over 380 million dollars. At the time Pluna was 75% private, belonging to an Argentine investment fund Leadgate and the rest government owned.

At the time Pluna was operating 250 weekly flights to Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay, which also represented 80% of all commercial air traffic in Uruguay and the remodelled Carrasco airport.