Brazilian airline BRA asks for temporary suspension amid financial problems

    RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian airline BRA announced Tuesday that it had asked for the temporary suspension of all its domestic and international fights because of financial problems.

    In a statement, the carrier said it would await investments to eventually resume operations after asking the National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) to grant the suspension.

    BRA denied the allegation that it had declared bankruptcy, while indicating that it would need approximately 30 million U.S. dollars to come back to business.

    With a fleet of 10 aircraft, the company has 26 destinations in Brazil and three abroad. It operates 35 domestic and five international flights per week, representing 4.6 percent of the country's total.

    BRA also advised passengers to contact the company to have their tickets refunded or transferred to other airlines.

    The suspension will leave 1,100 workers jobless. The company said it had notified the employees of the decision.

    The grounding of BRA planes came after the Oct. 18 ruling by ANAC that the company suspend all the international flights due to problems detected on its two Boeing 767 models.

    ANAC also said that 454 complaints were registered against BRA between Aug. 26 and Sept. 26 and that the company was fined for 224 of them.