Word: brazilian
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...infuriating test of men and boats yet devised. The prevailing northeasterly head winds often hit 40 knots or more. Complicating matters is the mast-snapping pampeiro, a westerly-land wind that frequently howls off the pampas at even greater force-only to die in a sudden, glassy calm. The Brazilian Curfent-the backwash of the Gulf Stream-is supposed to flow southward at two or three knots. But it weaves like a snake and sometimes dies like the wind...
...with a spaghetti-like network of routes. There are still six domestic carriers, including three with international routes. On some routes, as many as five lines compete for the same passengers, with the result that just about everybody loses money. The subsidies, emergency loans and other bailouts cost the Brazilian government uncounted millions each year. The worst drain was Panair, which has been losing an estimated $1,000,000 a month, and has run up a debt of $66.8 million...
Then, in 1961, bowing to the intense nationalistic pressures stirred up by President Jánio Quadros, Pan American sold its 30% controlling interest to Brazilian investors. The new owners, notably Mário Simonsen, a wheeler-dealer who made a fortune speculating in coffee, quickly put Panair into a financial nose dive. To win friends and influence politicians on other business deals, Simonsen started handing out so many free tickets that on overseas runs as many as 40% of Panair's passengers were flying now and paying never...
...factory in France for nonpayment of repair bills. More than half of Panair's 25 planes were out of service, and those still flying were often days, not just hours behind schedule. Panair's 4,500 employees were far more than the company needed, but under Brazilian law it was next to impossible to fire them...
...directly onto a Varig Convair 990 for a Lisbon-Paris-Frankfurt flight. Now Berta is talking about renting two of Panair's DC-8s and assigning a new Varig Boeing 707 to the transatlantic service. It was a familiar routine for Berta & Co. Panair is the tenth Brazilian airline that Varig has swallowed in as many years...