Valley: BWIA will have a plan

TRADE and Industry Minister Ken Valley yesterday expressed confidence that BWIA’s board of directors would present a strategic plan to ensure the national airline’s viability within the one-month time frame given to it by the Government. At a news conference at his San Fernando East constituency office on Thursday, Prime Minister Patrick Manning said Government had issued this directive to BWIA’s board and that board would be replaced if it was unable to do the job. Contrary to other newspaper reports, Valley disclosed that he was the one who issued this directive to BWIA’s board of directors (at a recent meeting) and they were clear in their minds about what needed to be done. The minister said the genesis of this directive was a note which he took to Cabinet last Thursday, “stating what is required (to ensure BWIA’s viability).”

Valley said it was therefore incorrect for anyone to say that the Prime Minister was reading the riot act to BWIA, when what was in fact happening was the logical sequence of events. He said it was also wrong to say that the recommendations advanced by consultants SH & E International  to ensure BWIA’s viability were not workable or not being applied by the airline’s board of directors. The minister added that each director was given a copy of those recommendations. Notwithstanding the bluntness of Prime Minister Manning’s statement, Valley said: “I don’t think they (BWIA) should be dumped in the water.” The minister said he remained the eternal optimist about the board coming up with a strategic plan that would satisfy Government because they knew what would happen if they did not.

Overall, Valley said 2004 was a better year for BWIA financially. However, he said with the Christmas rush, BWIA’s limited aircraft and the return of some “old problems” caused the latter part of 2004 to be somewhat embarrassing for the airline and there were certain things which the board should have dealt with to prevent this. Contacted yesterday, BWIA communications manager Dionne Ligoure said the board of directors had no comment to make about the Prime Minister’s statement at this time. Asked if the problems which caused numerous delays and angered many passengers had been sorted out, Ligoure gave the assurance that those problems were being addressed. She added that an air freighter had landed at Piarco International Airport around 10 am yesterday with some of the luggage left behind at certain destinations and advised BWIA passengers to come to Piarco to claim their baggage.