Don't fly for me, Argentina. (Travel Intelligence).

It's not bad enough that Argentina's economy has hit the basement. Now it's harder to get in and out of the country.

Brazilian airline TAM cut its Sao Paulo-Buenos Aires flight frequencies in half and new Argentine carrier Lineas Aereas de Entre Rios, or LAER, canceled plans to fly from Buenos Aires to Punta del Este, Uruguay, and Florianopolis, Brazil. LAER was slated to begin service on Jan. 5 but abandoned the plan when it learned jet fuel bins would be calculated in dollars, not pesos.

Officials say the number of Argentines vacationing in Brazil fell 40% in 2001 because of the economic crisis.

United Airlines is considering suspending its operations in Argentina. United, with US$3 million in frozen bank accounts in the South American country, has suffered losses since the government announced that dollar-denominated tickets could be purchased with devalued pesos. Malaysia Airlines has already stopped all service to Argentina.

Air France retains regular flights between Paris and Buenos Aires, but they now continue on to Santiago in a bid to boost flagging revenues by picking up Chilean passengers. Meanwhile, LanChile has slashed its flights between Santiago and Buenos Aires, Chile's air traffic to Argentina has fallen off so much that Chilean travel agencies no longer promote Argentina. Some Chilean travel outlets will not accept Argentine credit cards.

Lufthansa officials say their Santiago-Buenos Aires-Frankfurt flight used to run with a 60% passenger load from Argentina and 40% from Chile. The Argentine market now represents only 45%. Alitalia's passenger traffic between Buenos Aires and Rome has fallen off 50%, even with fares slashed to $520 from their regular $999 rate. And British Airways has reduced its Argentina service to only three flights a week.

American Airlines has not altered flight frequencies.