PM: Govt not sure about bailing out airline

As a second BWIA Boeing aircraft (9YGEO), was impounded in Miami yesterday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Government was fast approaching a position where it felt that it has had enough of BWIA. And he said it might well let the airline go bust. “It is by no means a foregone conclusion that the Government will bail BWIA out,” the Prime Minister told a news conference at Whitehall yesterday. Asked whether he believed the crises at BWIA triggered by the seizing of the aircraft, was being deliberately timed, in order to force government to pump money into the airline,  Manning stated: “Let me put it this way, I cannot say that the crises are not being strategically timed”.
 
The airline is now down to four 737 jets to ride all of its Caribbean and North American routes, which includes New York, Miami, Toronto, Guyana, Jamaica, and the Costa Rica route, which only started yesterday.  (BWIA uses the airbuses for the London and other transatlantic routes). On Tuesday 9Y KIN was seized by the lessor in Miami. And, according to sources, a third aircraft, 9Y BGI has been in the hangar for the past three weeks. The engine of this aircraft was sent for servicing and it is now being withheld until payment is made. Prime Minister Patrick Manning signalled that an automatic bailout was definitely out of the question. 

“Those at BWIA who have been reporting to the Government, we believe they have not been as forthright with the Government as they ought to be,” he said. “When we were being told that US $5 million is to be applied to a particular problem. The following day we are being told that of the US $5 million, $1.5 million is to go in one direction, $3.5 is to go in a next. “In other words the tune seems to be changing with the weather...We are fast coming to the position where we believe that enough is enough.”

Manning said a Cabinet sub-committee was meeting shortly to discuss whether Government, which had signed a letter of comfort for US $5 million after the seizure of the first aircraft- should do anything about this second seizure. In a release yesterday the airline advised all passengers to check with Flight Information (868- 669-3000) on  the availability of flights and times and to follow the instructions for flight arrival and departure times. BWIA stated that a second aircraft had been detained in Miami by the owners. The airline assured passengers that negotiations with the owners were continuing for the return of both aircraft which were seized this week. (see page 9)