Time for a regional airline

THE EDITOR: I am not sure if someone else may have suggested this before. But I believe it is high time that the governments of the Caribbean come together to form one regional airline instead of them trying to support LIAT, BWIA and Air Jamaica separately. All these airlines are drags on the treasuries of the countries that support them. They cannot independently support themselves without major government financial help. Many major airlines in the USA and in other countries around the world are mired in debt. Some are bankrupt or on the verge of bankruptcy, involved in mergers or other forms of restructuring to save themselves. I strongly support the PM in his statement that Bwee’s management should get its act together or the government will take away its support from them, or even replace them.

But I also believe that the people of TT, Jamaica and the other CARICOM (LIAT) countries should put aside their individual and collective nationalistic pride and come together to form one airline that will support the travelers of the region, instead of continually “throwing good money after bad” by making loans and grants to these almost bankrupt carriers. These government loans and grants to LIAT and Bwee are mainly from the treasury of the people of TT. I do not believe that these “new plans” will do anything in the long run to save these airlines, and that down the road the taxpayers of TT will be asked to pony up some more “oil money” for another “saving.”

It is time that people begin “to get real” and realise that even if BWEE has been around for over 60 years, if it is badly managed and times are different now (after 9/11, etc) sometimes you have to just “give it up” and move on to something bigger and better. Otherwise, you will never get out of the hole you are in and the quicksand will continue to fall in more and more around you and eventually swallow you. We can start extricating ourselves from the mess we are in by forming one major airline that will be efficiently managed, either as a world class airline or as a no-frills discount carrier. It can use a system of smaller aircraft to ferry passengers to the hubs that will connect them to cities in the USA, Canada and the UK using larger aircraft. Now is time for some Caribbean unity not petty politics and infighting. If we are ever serious about it, now is the time to do something.

KELVIN C JAMES SR
Port-of-Spain