Get CAL in the black

Government named CAL’s new Board last week although the members of the Board knew of their appointments since early October.

The new board took eff ect on October 14, 2016. Other members of the board are: Vice Chairman Michael Quamina, Vishnu Dhanpaul for the second ti me, Enid Zephyrine, Dr Chris Maharaj and representati ve of the Jamaican government Dennis Lalor.

Eff orts to reach Mr Mohammed at his south offi ce failed, while eff orts to talk with the acti ng CEO Singh also proved futi le.

In the last fi ve years, the airline has been through four Boards of Directors and fi ve Chief Executi ve Offi cers (CEOs), two confi rmed and three acti ng. Acti ng CEO Tyrone Tang, a Trinidadian, whose contract ended at the end of October is back in Canada with his family. The latest acti ng CEO positi on is now being held by pilot Jagmohan Singh. The head hunter fi rm looking for another permanent CEO has already selected a number of possibiliti es but the process is ti ed up in bureaucracy.

The new board replaces that led by Phillip Marshall, which was eff ecti ve June 1, 2015; before that Marshall was acti ng chairman.

Caribbean Airlines in a release last week thanked the Marshall board for its dedicated service to the airline and wished them success in the future.

Mohammed takes over the helm at a ti me when CAL is facing a myriad of problems including: some of the higher fares in the industry; on ti me performance and, most recently, trouble on the domesti c service with frequent breakdowns of the ATR fl eet.

It was only two weeks ago that two ATRS had problems and were off the line for several hours causing chaos on the airbridge with lengthy delays. Meanwhile 9Y-TTA which had another engine fi re was in the hangar while personnel from the French company pored over the cause of the fi re alerts coming on in the cockpit.

But this is not the fi rst ti me this parti cular airplane 9Y-TTA has given the maintenance department headaches. It was the ninth ti me that the cockpit warning lights have come on in this parti cular aircraft .

The fi rst major incident with 9Y-TTA and which caused an emergency at Piarco Internati onal occurred on October 10, 2015 when the right engine fi re indicator came on in the cockpit and the aircraft was forced to go into a holding patt ern for close to an hour on a return fl ight from Tobago.

On October 16, the same plane developed a hydraulic leak.

Although the engine was changed on the aircraft , on December 14, 2015 there was a similar situati on when the right engine indicator light again came on, causing the aircraft to circle above the airport before landing safely. While in the fi rst instance the evacuati on of the aircraft caused some passengers injuries, the second did not cause any passenger injuries. CAL was forced to press into the domesti c service the company’s jets.

Regarding the annual government subventi ons, between June 2013 and June 2015 the airline received (US)$196,942,976. Broken down CAL received (US)$35,444,890 in 2013; (US)$158,266,192 the following year and from January to June last year the fi gure was (US)$3,231,894.