Air Jamaica is Caribbean

There should be no difficulty in, say, the governments of Guyana, Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines being the early signatories to any such agreement. In addition, because of Jamaica’s emotive interest in Air Jamaica and, at present, financial interest any such move should begin, officially at least, once Jamaica signals it is willing to sell its national air carrier to Caribbean Airlines, or to put it in its correct context the Trinidad and Tobago Government.

Caribbean Airlines is today the national air carrier of Guyana. In turn, Trinidad and Tobago is planning an economic union by 2011 with the Governments of Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines and a political union with these fellow Caribbean States by 2013. An expanded Caribbean Airlines, including Air Jamaica, would make it by far the largest indigenous Caribbean air carrier. Any acquiring of Air Jamaica by Caribbean Airlines would see the current competition for regular passenger traffic as well as tourist traffic market share, between the two, eliminated, along with costs associated with battling for market share.

Instead, it would be a literal joining of forces to complement each other. Routes currently served by Air Jamaica and not Caribbean Airlines would, automatically, become in effect, strengthened Caribbean Airlines’ routes, while the case of existing overlapping, planned or otherwise, there would now be a unified airline rather than two, needlessly competing against each other. There would be a saving in marketing costs and other costs which would have arisen, normally from duplication of services. Ultimately, there would be a standardisation of the two fleets of aircraft, resulting in yet another pronounced area of savings.

Meanwhile, although the nationalising of services would lead to fewer runs by an expanded Caribbean Airlines on routes which are currently served by both Air Jamaica and Caribbean Airlines, nonetheless, with the elimination of duplication there would be a distinct growth in Caribbean Airlines’ passenger and cargo payloads. Should the Trinidad and Tobago airline succeed in acquiring Air Jamaica, this would mean a not to be dismissed impressive savings in costs to the taxpayers of both Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica in the final analysis.

As a former executive of the now defunct BWIA, Caribbean Airlines’ predecessor is reported as having told Caribbean Business Report: “The prospect (Caribbean Airlines’) of adding to its fleet and enjoying a bigger presence in the diaspora is exciting,” adding “...if a regional carrier is truly to be viable, Air Jamaica must come into the mix somewhere...” There is another aspect to all of this with the reported interest by Thomas Cook, leading United Kingdom tour operator and one of the world’s largest tour operators, in buying Air Jamaica.

I had not referred to it earlier so as to develop the point on the advantages of any acquisition of Air Jamaica by Caribbean Airlines. The interest demonstrated in Air Jamaica by Thomas Cook may be a signal that Cook’s may have been alerted, through inquiries with respect to future bookings, that the Caribbean is being viewed, increasingly, as a tourist destination. In this setting, Thomas Cook may see itself, in the event that its bid for Caribbean Airlines succeeds as being able to kill the proverbial two birds with one stone. For not only would the tour operator be in a position to book appreciably additional tours to Jamaica and the Caribbean, but in the process market Air Jamaica as a preferred carrier as well.

A minus re both Caribbean Airlines and Thomas Cook seeking to acquire Air Jamaica at this time is that aviation fuel prices are demonstrably higher (and rising) than they were when the Government of Trinidad and Tobago began operating Caribbean Airlines some three years ago. A plus, however, is that the regional airline industry is not plagued with the spectre of charter proliferation as had been BWIA and other carriers a decade ago. The management of Caribbean Airlines has emphasised not only cost control through improved productivity but paid increasing attention to ratio of staff to aircraft as well as virtual fleet standardisation in an effort to achieve the still elusive profitability. Hopefully, Air Jamaica ownership remains in Caribbean hands.