Govt Wants more shares in BWIA

After divesting itself of ownership of BWIA in the 1990s, Government is now saying that it is prepared to put money into BWIA in order to save the airline, but only if it gets more ownership and more control of the company.

And while there was a clear implication that Government was not happy with the management at BWIA, both Prime Minister Patrick Manning and Trade Minister Ken Valley refused to be explicit on that issue. At a post conference news briefing at Whitehall yesterday, both Manning and Valley conceded that while Government was extremely reluctant, it would — if there was “no other alternative” — reverse its policy and take charge of the cash-strapped airline. Manning stressed that if that was to be done, it would be a temporary measure.

Saying that Government divested its shares in BWIA because it wanted to insulate the Treasury, the Prime Minister asked rhetorically: “Why would we pursue a course of action deliberately designed to gain control of the airline? If that should happen then it is because there is no other alternative. And if that should happen, I can tell you that it is not going to be a permanent situation”, he said. The Finance and General Purposes Committee, a Cabinet sub-committee will on Monday  study the proposal put by BWIA to the Government.  Valley said the Committee had already looked at the plan and made certain recommendations to the Cabinet. 

Asked whether Government was satisfied with the leadership of Conrad Aleong, Valley smiled and in turn asked journalists: “What do you think?” Told that Aleong had said it was short-sighted to allow BWIA to go under because of “a few months of soft market downturn”, Valley said it was not simply an issue of a few months of difficulty. “There are bigger issues,” he stressed. “Government has no difficulty in assisting...in moments of uncertainty...What one wants is the ability to rely on planning by the top management, at least for a couple of weeks and to be able to rely on the information provided to us. A key ingredient is the ability to rely on the information supply,” Valley stated.

Asked whether Government was happy with the management at BWIA, Valley replied: “I wonder whether there is a difference between saying that government is unhappy and saying we are not all too pleased”. Referring to the call from the Chamber and the TTMA for Government to help BWIA, Valley said it was “amazing” that the private sector was saying that Government should act. “I hope they send the same signals to the private sector shareholders,” he said, adding that if the company needed money and the other shareholders were not prepared to “come forward”, there were few alternatives.

Valley was also “amazed” that BWIA had a plan to retrench workers and no money to pay severance. He said the airline asked Government to pay the severance, and then to pay salaries. He added that Airport Authority had informed government that BWIA was not paying the Authority. He said unless Government was informed by the airline about all its total liabilities, and “everything was put on the table”, this “weekly visitation” (to the Treasury) would continue. Manning said Government was prepared to let the airline go under, if after examining the situation it felt this was the only option. “We are prepared to take that hard decision.

Valley said the options at present were : either Government, which  currently owns 33.5 per cent of the airline supports it, or the airline goes into bankruptcy, other somebody else supports it. He said Government had to take hard decisions with respect to Caroni and other organisations, and that BWIA was no exception. Valley urged all citizens, including the business community, who believed that BWIA was important, to acquire equity in the airline. “That is critical. It is an important signal the community could send to the government,” he said.