In a much-anticipated ruling, the U.S. Trademark Appealing Bureau (TTAB) turned down a motion to cancel the Havana Club trademark in that country, a move that automatically upholds the registration renewal presented by Havana Club Holding (HCH), a joint venture founded by Pernod Ricard S.A. back in 1993.

The legal scuffle started out with a demand for the cancellation of the Havana Club trademark registration in U.S. soil filed by the Bacardi Co. on the basis that such registration had been made under fraudulent circumstances.

A senior Air Jamaica official is predicting a good performance for the carrier in 2004 based on its overall showing including moderate financial growth last year.

Vice President of Marketing Michael Going said that the company has been making steady strides during the course of last year and was well positioned for a productive take off during 2004.

"We are on a very strong road to rebuilding the carrier to pre-911 positions both in terms of our financial and operating performances and our position in the market place", Going told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Christened with champagne by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, EMBRAER, the world’s fourth-largest airplane maker, unveiled its new mid-size airliner in an effort to capture markets that use big commercial aircraft at the expense of costly operations.

At a price tag of $30 million per unit, the EMBRAER 190 can seat up to 108 passengers. JetBlue Airways Corporation, a U.S. company, has already bought a hundred of those planes.

Executive Vice President of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Sue Springer urged regional cruise destinations "to move away" from imposing a controversial head tax on cruise ship passengers. At the moment the charges vary significantly in each destination, ranging from US $2 to US $65, as is the case in Bermuda.

The Competition Defense System (CDS), a watchdog attached to the Spanish Ministry of Economy, okayed Iberojet Travels –an affiliate of the Iberostar Group- to buy 51 percent of all shares owned by tour operator Viva Tours.

After checking on the file, the CDS decided not to hand it over to the Competition Defense Tribunal, sources close to Spain’s Ministry of Economy revealed.

In early January, Iberostar put the CDS on notice that it had already taken over control of Viva Tours with 30 percent of all shares in the bag.

The number of flown passengers in the first four weeks of 2004 soared 3.8 percent compared to the same period of time the year before, the European Airlines Association (EAA) informed.

All markets operated by EAA-member airlines logged dramatic increases in the number of flown passengers in January 2004.

The North Atlantic market features the highest increase with 4.7 percent, followed by the Intra-European market with 2.2 percent, and Asia & Oceania with 1.3 percent.