Squandering money on dead loss airline

THE EDITOR: If I heard the news correctly, it seems as though the Government of TT is once more going to turn around the national airline BWIA and place it on a sound financial footing free of government subsidy as it has tried to do several times in the past without success. If my memory serves me correctly, it was somewhere in the late 1940s that Mr Lowell Yerex the founder of BWIA, TACA of Costa Rica and TACA of Venezuela flew into Trinidad to dispose of his interest in BWIA, because he no longer considered it a viable proposition.

At the time the BWIA fleet consisted of one Lockheed Electra that had a capacity of six passengers, three converted Lockheed Hudson bombers with a capacity of 14 passengers and another Lockheed Loadstar that was purchased from the US Airforce at Wallerfield and was converted from military to passenger configuration locally at tremendous cost. Registration No VP-TAN and nicknamed “The brass Hat” by the US airforce. The three converted Hudson bombers were equipped with the larger Wright engines as opposed to the less powerful Pratt and Whitney engines in the Loadstar, since they were designed to carry an increased bomb load and fly at higher altitudes. As a result, the fuel consumption was much greater and with only 14 passengers it was grossly uneconomical to operate.

Later on in life, BWIA was acquired by BOAC and became known as Britain’s Worst Investment Abroad. BWIA was subsequently bought over by the Government of TT and the rationale for purchasing it at the time was that the Minister of Transport stated that it was the aspiration of every independent country to own and operate its personal airline, even though as I pointed out at the time, the USA which was the largest and richest independent country in the world did not own one single commercial aircraft far less an airline. The fact is that since the acquisition of BWIA by the Government, the company-owned aircraft have been disposed of and the present fleet is on lease which is quite costly. The price of jet fuel has increased astronomically, landing and parking fees worldwide have increased dramatically and service and maintenance cost have doubled.

To add to all of this, we have been told that BWIA’s present debt stands at US $500 million and mounting and that is only for starters. The fact is that the airline industry worldwide is in serious difficulties and several of the large and once sound and profitable airlines have been forced to either merge or go out of business and even those that have survived are in serious financial straights. It comes as no surprise that shareholders other than the Government have not come forward to rescue BWIA from its present predicament, since it is far more prudent to put your money in an investment that will show even a small return than in one that is a dead loss. But then TT is said to be sitting on billions of barrels of oil and even greater gas reserves, so why not squander a few billion dollars of the citizen’s money in a venture that has proved itself to be unprofitable for the past 40 years or more?

MARTIN KAVANAGH
La Romaine