BWIA gets June 16 deadline

The Inter-ministerial committee on BWIA met with BWIA’s Board yesterday and handed over a letter setting out the directives of  Cabinet. This states that the airline must bring down its costs, particularly its labour costs, before it can receive any more financial assistance from Government. Cabinet has mandated BWIA to negotiate with the unions to cut salaries and reduce staff. Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ken Valley said the letter also gave the Board a June 16 deadline to report back to the Committee on what “the plan is with respect to the unions.” “We told the Board that we (the Government) have the money (to bail out the airline) but you all have to meet the pre-conditions,” he said. Valley said while there were several conditionalities, “the critical one” was the reduction in labour costs. “If the airline is to become viable, we have got to reduce expenses from 10 cents per mile, to a maximum of 8 cents per mile,” the Minister stated.

He said the Board told the Committee that it had met the unions over the weekend and “had made some progress.” He added that on June 16 the Board would be reporting to the Committee whether it had achieved full success in its negotiations with the unions. Valley said the Committee met with Zwaig Consultants on Sunday, but he declined to state what the consultants said. There was no Cabinet meeting on the airline yesterday and no word was forthcoming from BWIA management on the matter.