n/t

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/american-airlines-request-for-pension-bailout-draws-criticism/2012/02/03/gIQAu1m1nQ_story.html

and you quit your job, would someone be right to dismiss you as a "greedy capitalist"?

Your analogy is flawed.

are selling their skills and labor for a price that they call their wages. If you pay me $12.92 per hour, I'll provide technical support for your Internet service provider. And if you refuse to pay me according to our agreement, I'll refuse to do the work and I'll take my skills elsewhere. Simple enough.
If you owned a small business, and a customer of yours refused to pay you, would you continue to provide services for them?
If your boss refused to pay you, would you keep working?
Venezuela refuses to pay the airline the money they are owed. So they are cutting flights. If I were in charge, I would pull every plane out of the country and refuse to fly there any more at all, until I got paid what I was owed.
Unless you think the airlines should work for free. How would the airline pay it's workers? How would they fuel their planes? How would they provide maintenance and spare parts for the planes?

of national resources is run by, well...buffoons who squander their natural gifts on graft, corrupt practices, and payouts to the Boligarchs....

Bolovarian Airlines!



Offering non-stop service to somewhere in the general proximity of Cuba... and nowhere else.

Last edited Tue Jun 17, 2014, 11:23 PM - Edit history (1)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonov_An-2

Tough plane, it may even by able to fly in the condition it is in. In production from 1947 to 2002 (and may still be in production in China, details are unclear).

Venezuela does not have any AN-2, they have purchased 25 Polish built PZL M28, twin turboprop STOL aircraft, which was designed originally as the AN-28 which in turn was derived from the AN-14. The PZL M28 is larger, single wing, has twice the range but requires

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PZL_M28

Specifications (An-28)[edit]


Comparison of the An-14, its upgrade version with a Turboprop engine and the An-28
................. ......AN-14..................................AN-3............................................AN-28
Crew:...............1–2........................................2...............................................1-2
Capacity: ..........12........................................12..............................................18 passengers
Length: ............12.4 m(40'8&quot ..... .................14 m...........................................12.98 m (42.57 ft)
Wingspan: .......18.2 m (59' 8'')'.....................18.2 m (59' 8'')...........................22.00 m (72.18 ft)
Height: ..............4.1 m (13 ft)........................4.235 m (13', 11&quot .......................4.6 m (15.08 ft)
Wing area:....... 71.52 m² (769.8 ft²)..............71.51 m² (769.7 ft²)...................39.7 m² (427 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,300 kg (7,300 lb)..................................................................3,900 kg (8,600 lb)
Loaded weight: 5,500 kg (12,000 lb)..............................................................5,800 kg (13,000 lb).
Max. takeoff weight: .......................................5,800 kg..................................6,100 kg (13,450 lb)

Max speed: ...258 km/h (139 kn, 160 mph)....260 km/m.137 mph; 119 kn....355 km/h (190 nm, 220 mph)
Range: ...............845 km (456 nmi, 525 mi)....550 km (342 mi; 297 nmi) .......510 km (270 nm, 320 mi)
Service ceiling: ...4,500 m (14,750 ft).............4,400 m (14,436 ft)..................6000 m (19,700 ft)
Rate of climb: ....3.5 m/s (700 ft/min).............5 m/s (980 ft/min)....................12.0 m/s (2,360 ft/min)
Wing loading: ..146 kg/m² (29.9 lb/ft²).........81 kg/m2 (17 lb/sq ft)
Power/mass: ...136 W/kg (0.083 hp/lb).........174 W/kg.................................250 W/kg (0.15 hp/lb)

The AN-28 weighs 600 KG more then the An-2, but the AN-2 can haul 2200 KG, but the An-28 can haul only 1900 kg.

Russia and other users of the AN-2 are quickly converting them to either turboprops or kerosene engine planes for the high octane Aviation gasoline used in the An-2 is no longer in production in Russia. In the gasoline model the AN-2 has more range then either of its two replacements, the AN-3 and the AN-28

AS to your comment of trips to Cuba and no where else, the AN-2 and AN-3 (along with the AN-28) can land on any road or open field that can take its wing span.

I was more editorializing what might become of an airline operated by the crackpots running Venezuela. Airplanes in severe disrepair operating flights to only their ideological ally and probably crashing somewhere short of that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_disease

In many ways Venezuela has been suffering from the "Dutch Disease" since 1900. The term "Dutch Disease" comes from how the finding of Natural Gas in the Netherlands in 1959, lead to a decline in manufacturing in the Netherlands. Prior to the finding of the Natural Gas, Netherlands would export its agricultural and manufactured items to its neighbors in Europe. If exports were higher then imports the affect would be to INCREASE the value of the Dutch Currency, this would increase the value of imports till the value of imports equal the value of exports. If imports were higher then exports, the currency would FALL reducing the cost of items being exported, till the value of exports equal imports.

The finding of Natural Gas upset this system, for the export of Natural gas would be same no matter the value of domestic currency and thus would have the net effect of raising its value to levels that make the exporting of other items to expensive, and the importing of items very cheap. You end up with an economy wrapped around one items and that economy is driven by that one items, to the detriment of the rest of the economy.

Chavez actually was working on solving the problem of the Dutch Disease in Venezuela, then the price of oil climb higher then anyone though it would. This had the effect of encouraging importing of all types of items that could be produced locally, and forcing anyone not tied in with the Oil industry to quit doing anything, including farming and manufacturing.

This has been a problem for Venezuela since at least the 1920s. No one has been able to solve it and the recent increase in the price of oil (and that Venezuela has a HUGE amount of heavy sour oil it can export) has had the affect of keeping the Bolivar high. In many ways Venezuela is one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in, despite the fact it is loaded with slums.

Given that the price of oil increased by a factor of FOUR since 2000, that brought in a lot of Revenue to the Government who tried to use it to relieve a lot of the problems in Venezuela, but the mere bring in the revenue is the problem. In many ways Venezuela would be better off NOT exporting oil, thus no revenue and thus the value of the Bolivar would drop making Farming and Manufacturing profitable.

Notice, the problem is the MONEY coming into Venezuela, NOT how the Government is spending that money. In many ways you saw this in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Libya and other OPEC nations, they have high value currency but almost no exports of anything by oil related items (Crude oil and refined oil). Venezuela has had the same problem since the 1920s, yes it pre dates Chavez by decades. The only reason Chavez was able to take over, was do to the drop in the price of oil in the late 1990s, oil revenue dried up in Venezuela and no one knew how to pay the bills with the revenue from oil dropping like a rock in the late 1990 (Remember a $1 a gallon gasoline? and some Americans were paying even less).

Chavez got into power, pushed to higher oil prices in OPEC meetings, did get some price increase then you had the slow but steady increase in oil prices starting about 2002. This was both good and bad for Chavez. It was good, he had the revenue to do the projects he wanted, he reduce the proverty level in Venezuela by amounts unheard of elsewhere. On the other hand, his attempts to improve farming and manufacturing tended to fail for the revenue from Oil kept the value of the Bolivar to high to encourage exports while that same high value encouraged imports.

I do not know how you solved that problem. One of the reason Al Queda is so powerful is the unrest in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States for the same reason. We do not hear of them for those are dictatorships that the US favors. We do hear of Iran and Venezuela, for they are ruled by people we dislike (and that also includes Russia, another exported of oil that we dislike). Russia and Iran are large enough and independent enough from the rest of the world to restrict what is imported and thus protect its farmers and manufacturing, Venezuela is not that thus can not isolate itself from the rest of the world, while exporting oil.

I hate to say this, but this cut off of air flights may be GOOD for Venezuela. It would be good by isolating Venezuela from imports (in the case of air travel people and flowers which tend to be airlifted out of Columbia and Venezuela for resale in the US, Columbia much more the Venezuela do to the Dutch Disease in Venezuela). If further boycotts of importing items to Venezuela occurs, it may encourage domestic production and pull Venezuela out of its Dutch Disease. Only time will tell but maybe this is a good thing for Venezuela.

in any event, imports from China aren't being cut off.