BWIA flies to Dominican Republic

STRESSING the crucial role of air links to TT’s trade with the rest of the world, Trade Minister Ken Valley was optimistic that BWIA’s financial fortunes would turn around by year’s end and announced that plans were afoot for the national airline to fly to the Dominican Republic from November 18. Addressing Thursday’s post-Cabinet news conference at Whitehall, Valley expressed cautious optimism that BWIA was “past the worst” regarding its economic woes. The Minister revealed that together with Government Ministers Dr Keith Rowley and Junior Finance Minister Christine Sahadeo, he held talks on Tuesday in Miami with BWIA’s lessors International Leasing Finance Corporation (ILFC) “to work out a plan for the sustainability of BWIA”. He said that meeting “went quite well” and Government is awaiting ILFC to respond to certain proposals which were made.

Valley also indicated that the dual restructuring of BWIA and Liat is ongoing with the ultimate goal of a merger of the two airlines still on the cards. The Minister hinted that the public may be asked to invest in BWIA once again. He said BWIA chairman Lawrence Duprey’s term has not expired and allegations of him being illegally re-elected were baseless. Valley also spoke of a series of ongoing trade initiatives being undertaken by his Ministry, including one to Canada headed by Junior Trade Minister Diane Seukeran.

He announced that the Regional Trade Negotiating Committee will hold a conference in Trinidad from September 29 to October 3 and this meeting could very well cement Port-of-Spain as the site for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Secretariat. Valley said TT has the support of Caricom and two Latin American nations to become the FTAA’s headquarters and is optimistic of gaining the support of at least two more Latin American countries. The Minister disclosed that TT is ahead of Miami in the race for the FTAA’s headquarters and the United States is seeking regional consensus on the matter.