Saith: Decision on BWIA next week

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION and Information Minister Dr Lenny Saith hinted that Government has made a decision in principle about the future of BWIA and should take its long-awaited decision on the airline when the Cabinet meets at Whitehall next Thursday. Addressing yesterday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Saith (who chairs a Cabinet committee mandated to deliberate on BWIA’s future) revealed that the committee “has made a firm recommendation to the Cabinet” about the way forward for the airline, and a note will go before Cabinet next Thursday. Saith was optimistic that by next week “a decision will be taken” on BWIA’s future. While remaining tight-lipped about what his committee’s recommendation to the Cabinet was (restructure or closure of BWIA), Saith said implementation will be swift once Cabinet makes a decision on the airline’s future.

The minister explained that the reason why deliberations about BWIA have taken as long as they have was because Government wanted to ensure “that once a decision was taken that the implementation mechanism for that decision was in place — no matter what decision we take.” Last December, Prime Minister Patrick Manning mandated BWIA’s board of directors to devise  plans for the airline’s long-term viability. Once Piarco International Airport regained Category One status in August, Manning said this would give BWIA the flexibility it needed, but Category One status may not predetermine Government’s decisions on the airline’s future. BWIA officials yesterday said they have received no word from the Government about what the future direction of the airline would be and the airline’s operations are continuing as normal.