Chavez orders shakeup at Caracas airport

[Die Neue Zeit]

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6950AM20101006




CARACAS (Reuters) Venezuela's Hugo Chavez ordered on Tuesday the "intervention" of Caracas' international airport to make it a profit-making business for his socialist government

The term usual refers in Venezuela to the state takeover of a privately-run business, but in this case Chavez appeared to be referring purely to a change in management as the airport is already run by a body under the Ministry of Transport.

"It's a big airport, how come it does not make a profit?" Chavez said of the Maiquetia airport, which lies on the coast just outside the Venezuelan capital Caracas.

"Cuba's Jose Marti airport gives the Cuban government $100 million each year for its operations, planes coming and going. But Maiquetia gives no profits," he added in a TV address.

"I've told the new (transport) minister to intervene the Maiquetia international airport."

Chavez gave no more details of the problems at the airport that he wanted to root out, but said the measure was necessary to maximize income for the Venezuelan state.

"We need to take control of those airports because we need to look after the economy. We can't keep depending on oil."

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

Not really much detail in that article.

Obviously there are positive and negative ways to improve an organisation - by looking at 'efficiencies' and 'economies' would be Capitalistic and negative. To look at workers' control of decision making would be positive. That is how we need to frame this, when we get more details.

[pranabjyoti]

It may be viewed from another perspective. An airport is not such a service regularly used by ordinary people, if that doesn't make profit that means state is subsidizing a service to comparative wealthy persons. Air passengers and Cargo isn't something very essential to common people and by putting heavy tax on them doesn't mean a burden on the common people. If the price of the amenities in the airport would be sufficiently hiked and revenue will go to the state, in the long run that means withdrawal of the subsidy from the state to the wealthy.
Asking profit from an airport can not be equalized with privatization of industries and cutting of jobs.

[Vladimir Innit Lenin]

It may be viewed from another perspective. An airport is not such a service regularly used by ordinary people, if that doesn't make profit that means state is subsidizing a service to comparative wealthy persons. Air passengers and Cargo isn't something very essential to common people and by putting heavy tax on them doesn't mean a burden on the common people. If the price of the amenities in the airport would be sufficiently hiked and revenue will go to the state, in the long run that means withdrawal of the subsidy from the state to the wealthy.
Asking profit from an airport can not be equalized with privatization of industries and cutting of jobs.


It depends where you are from. I'm not sure where you are from, but here in Europe, i'd have thought that the majority of flights carry working people between European destinations, as tickets are regularly in the £20-£50 range all over Europe, from England and France to Poland and Ukraine.

Obviously living in the UK, an island nation, i'm going to have a slightly subjective opinion in what i'm about to say; but I would not under-estimate the importance of low cost budget travel to ordinary workers. One of the most honest and veritable wants of ordinary working people, certainly in this country, I think, is the ability to have a family holiday once or twice per year. Budget air travel makes this possible for people in places like the UK who cannot easily travel by train between places. To this end, i'd say that a profitable airport organisation, that is run - democratically - by those very workers who understand the importance of the odd holiday to like-minded lower income families, is certainly in the interest of the working class as a whole.

[pranabjyoti]

This may be true of UK, but for Venezuela? Does big airports used for cheap domestic and international flights, at least not in India.

[MarxSchmarx]

It may be viewed from another perspective. An airport is not such a service regularly used by ordinary people, if that doesn't make profit that means state is subsidizing a service to comparative wealthy persons. Air passengers and Cargo isn't something very essential to common people and by putting heavy tax on them doesn't mean a burden on the common people. If the price of the amenities in the airport would be sufficiently hiked and revenue will go to the state, in the long run that means withdrawal of the subsidy from the state to the wealthy.
Asking profit from an airport can not be equalized with privatization of industries and cutting of jobs.

The other approach towards profitabilty is to improve the airport's efficiency and productivity. I don't have a good feel for which approach chavez is taking (raising fees or cutting costs) but presumably the latter won't entail increased costs - however, my suspicion is that an approach analogous to the kind you outline is likely.