TPT March 2009

From the AmericaS

suspended deliveries of the oil ‘until further notice’ , Joseph P Kennedy II, president of Citizens Energy Corp (Boston), said on his company’s website (5 January). Mr Kennedy is associated with a number of ecology-based and humanitarian initiatives. Citizens Energy handled logistics for the Citgo program, credited with serving 180,000 households, 250 emergency shelters, and 37 Native American tribes over the winter of 2006-2007. The program was expanded in the winter of 2007-2008 when the price of heating oil in the US rose above $3 a gallon. As reported by Steven Bodzin, of Bloomberg News, Mr Chávez on 31 December reduced foreign currency allotments as a first step toward countering the effects of the decline in Venezuela’s oil price, which plunged 75 per cent since reaching a record in July 2008. Aviation › Boeing Co (Chicago) said on 8 January that it delivered 375 airplanes in 2008: about 15 per cent fewer than the 441 delivered in 2007. The world’s second-largest plane maker after Europe’s Airbus blamed a two-month strike and other production hold-ups for delays in delivery of new jetliners. The strike by 27,000 unionized workers forced Boeing to shut its commercial aircraft plants from early September to early November, at an estimated cost to the company of $100 million a day.

Planes put on hold included the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, designed with carbon composite parts for fuel efficiency but now two years behind schedule. One customer, Singapore Airlines, was reported to be leasing 19 A330’s from Airbus as the Dreamliners it has on order will not arrive until 2011 at the earliest. Virgin Atlantic Airways expects a first installment of 15 787’s in 2013 – again, at the earliest – and is also believed to be mulling the Airbus A330. Boeing on 9 January announced it was shedding 4,500 workers from its commercial plane operations, or about 7 per cent of the unit complement, to trim costs. Most of the dismissals were said to be in ‘overhead functions’ not directly associated with manufacture. The jobs will mainly be cut from Boeing plants in the Seattle area, between April and June. › In the first airline trial of algae as fuel, Continental Airlines on 7 January tested a mixture of algae and jatropha, a tropical shrub with an oil-bearing seed, in a two-hour flight of a Boeing 737 jetliner. The International Air Transport Association has set a goal of 10 per cent alternative fuels by 2017. › New rules mandated by the US Congress require people travelling by air to the US under the visa waiver program to register online in advance. The mandatory rules (as of 12 January) cover the citizens of 35 countries who do not require a visa to enter the US. Travelers are now being asked to fill out the forms at least 72 hours in advance of travel. Dorothy Fabian , Features Editor (USA)

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