Anthea McGibbon

CONTRIBUTED BY CATHY KLEIN, FLORIDA:

Air J Staff pens letter to CG

Saturday, 30 January 2010
Employees of Air Jamaica have stepped up their efforts to get control of the airline which is in the process of being sold.
The Jamaica Airline Pilots Association (JALPA) has written to Contractor General Greg Christie in a last ditch attempt to prevent Air Jamaica from being sold to foreigners.
In its letter, the Air Jamaica Staff asked the Contractor General to investigate pertinent issues relating to the divestment of the national airline.
The letter dated on Friday, among other things, questions whether the government is abiding by the rules of transparency and accountability in the disposal of public assets.
The group has questioned the rationale behind the government’s and the Divestment Committee’s plan to go ahead with the deal with Caribbean Airlines.
It is also questioning the expiration date of the divestment offer.
The Staff said their bid for the airline was submitted in October last year based on the directives on a website referred to by Chairman of the Divestment Committee, Dennis Lalor.
They however, argue that they had expressed an interest in acquiring the company back in August, but were not informed of a deadline at that time.
The Air Jamaica Staff is also upset that although the government failed to inform them of the shortfalls of their bid, if any, Prime Minister Bruce Golding flew to Trinidad in December to have that Government amend its bid for Air Jamaica.

PM’s action not fair an objective

The Open Skies arrangement which Jamaica has signed with the United States has also come under scrutiny.
The Staff is questioning whether there is a breach on the part of the Jamaican government as they claim that Trinidad has not signed on to that agreement.
Prime Minister Golding’s recent pronouncement that he was ‘more inclined to the Caribbean Airlines Offer’ has also not gone down well with JALPA.
It is asking if Prime Minister’s pronouncement is not an indication of bias and heavy influencing of what should be the fair and objective decisions of any divestment committee.
JALPA is also questioning whether the government has a back-up plan in the event that tourism and other sectors suffer as a result of the divestment of Air Jamaica.
On Tuesday, Office of the Contractor General sent a letter to the Office of the Prime Minister outlining it concerns about the divestment of Air Jamaica.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding then said the Contractor General was seeking clarification on JALPA’s proposal to take over Air Jamaica.
According to Mr. Golding, questions have been raised whether the pilot’s proposal can be considered as legitimate and in keeping with rules governing the sale of state assets.
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Diaspora urges PM to give priority to Pilots’ bid for AirJ

Sunday, January 31, 2010
THE Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board representing Jamaicans in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom has described Government’s intention to divest national carrier Air Jamaica to Trinidad’s Caribbean Airlines as “a crucial mistake with a long-term consequence for Jamaicans”.
Instead, the group is proposing that the Bruce Golding-led administration give priority to proposals submitted by the Jamaican Airline Pilot’s Association (JALPA) for the acquisition of the national carrier.
FFOLKES-ABRAHAMS… if each Jamaican was asked to buy a bond each year costing US$10, I think we could have kept Air Jamaica in Jamaican ownership
ROBINSON… This divestment process has been going on well over a year (and) individuals were given time to present their proposals MEADOWS… the position the Government takes is a common sense position as against the sentiments you have articulated
FFOLKES-ABRAHAMS… if each Jamaican was asked to buy a bond each year costing US$10, I think we could have kept Air Jamaica in Jamaican ownership 1/3
The airline workers this week said while they understood that the airline was a burden to taxpayers, it should remain in Jamaican hands if divested.
In a statement to the Joint Select Committee of Parliament on Diaspora Affairs at Gordon House last Thursday, the board said it refused to “stand silent and watch (its) birthright being sold”.
“The Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board has learned of the plan of the Jamaican Government to divest itself of our national airline Air Jamaica. While we understand that Air Jamaica has significant financial problems, we are concerned that our piece of Jamaica that flies will be given over to non-Jamaican ownership.
This, we believe, is a crucial mistake with a long-term consequence for Jamaicans,” representative Sharon Ffolkes-Abrahams said.
“We need to maintain our own air transportation to and from Jamaica if we are going to continue to make significant strides on the world scene,” she said.
“We understand that the Pilot’s Association and employee shareholders are in the process of putting together a bid for the acquisition of Air Jamaica. We are imploring the Government to give the employees an adequate and full opportunity to present their proposal and consider them seriously.
“We support their efforts to acquire, and urge you to give them first preference and priority over all other and potential offers,” Ffolkes-Abrahams said further.
“We say this because we feel it is important to keep things Jamaican, Jamaican,” she added.
According to Ffolkes-Abrahams the potential of the Jamaican Diaspora, which is estimated to number over ‘three million’, was yet untapped. She urged Government to develop a strategy to get funds through this medium to help offset the country’s debts.
“The various diplomatic offices, missions, churches, institutions could be requested to collect donations, the plans should be widely publicised by the government. Let us think for the long-term debt elimination and save this nation from financial devastation,” she said.
Government Senators Dennis Meadows and Committee Chair Ronald Robinson were, however, quick to point out that while the sentimental value of the airline was not missed, the debt burden was too much.
“We understand the sentiments, but we must also understand that it’s a cost we can’t afford at this time and, therefore, the position the government takes is a common sense position as against the sentiments you have articulated,” Meadows said.
“Far more developed and wealthier nations have taken a less emotional look at the issue. This divestment process has been going on well over a year (and) individuals were given time to present their proposals. I don’t think a year is rushing,” Robinson said. He also noted that the carrier was indebted to the tune of over US$ 1billion, and was costing the government of Jamaica $30 million daily in subsidy to
fly the seven planes and maintain the more than 1,200 workers and more than 100 pilots.
Opposition committee member Senator Sandrea Falconer, who sided with the Diaspora’s view, was taken to task for adopting a political stance in a ‘bi-partisan’ committee by Government Senator Laurie Broderick.
Falconer had contended that the Government had taken the wrong approach.
“The rush to sell it was high-handed at best. I think the Government could have engaged the Jamaican public, members of the staff and the Diaspora. If each Jamaican was asked to buy a bond each year costing US$10, I think we could have kept Air Jamaica in Jamaican ownership.
“I don’t think the pilot’s were given enough time or enough of a hearing and I don’t think they were treated properly,” Falconer said.
But a chiding Broderick said it was “erroneous” for Falconer to suggest that the divestment process was without consultation.
Opposition Senator Anthony Hylton, however, argued that the views of the Diaspora ought to have been taken in consideration. “It impacts them directly. Who are the “we” that were consulted?” Hylton asked.
In the meantime, addressing the issue in Parliament last Tuesday Prime Minister Bruce Golding more or less dismissed the pilots bid.
“Any entity that is proposing to take on Air Jamaica by debt financing, borrowing money, I would advise them sincerely, don’t go there. If you are not able to get in on the basis of equity, where you have the cash and you are prepared to invest that cash and put it at risk because you believe that you can make it work, then my advice is don’t go there,” the prime minister said.
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Air Jamaica: rescuing a treasure

Published: Sunday | January 31, 2010

Wilberne Persaud – Columnist,email:wilbe65@yahoo.com
Last week one morning, I woke up to find in my inbox a copy of an open letter from the staff of Air Jamaica Holdings Limited to Prime Minister Bruce Golding, indicating “full support of the initiative presently under way by the Jamaica Air Line Pilots Association (JALPA)”.
It was a moving appeal, a plea to keep alive “the little piece of Jamaica that flies!”
The letter identifies changes experienced over the years: “change in its truest sense; change of management, owners, operating plans and even Government. Today, however, we stand as one united voice to say: ‘It’s ours, our sweat, tears, labour -our family, our heritage and more so our Jamaican pride”.
I must confess to sharing their pain, emotionally, almost like anticipation of a loss in the family. Sometimes in such matters emotion must be suppressed.
Actually, however, there is no need to abandon, or make the case based purely on emotion. Emotion buys no bread at the supermarket. The case can be convincingly made
from the bald facts of Air Jamaica as a business – private-sector style – versus Air Jamaica as government supported, yet ultimately taxpayer-funded provider of subventions to the tourism industry.
Effectively, taxpayers fund losses while private tourism interests take the profits.
Consider this: Would the IMF insist that the Government abandon or sell off the Tourist Board? What profits does this entity generate, for and to whom?
Who pays for its operations? Which non-Bellevue inmate would purchase it?
Entities such as these exist because of external benefits to society and economy as
a whole. The businesses they support provide employment, pay taxes and so on.
From its 1969 inception, Air Jamaica has never been fully, not even adequately capitalised.
This is not a disputed issue.
Furthermore, operationally, Air Jamaica, for several years of its existence, provided profits, performing in an internal bottom-line sense, better than many US airlines. Always, however, with debt service factored in, the airline made a loss -with inadequate capital the only possible outcome.
Yet, Jamaican and foreign travellers alike value the service, the ‘feel’ and pleasant, unique experience flying the national airline generates.
Air Jamaica’s contribution to the economy and people is also not in dispute.
Higglers became international travellers, sourcing goods to satisfy the needs of a wide cross section of Jamaicans. Their drive, ingenuity and initiative are legendary, though their behaviours sometimes jolt the sensitivities of business and holiday travellers – not too high a price to pay for the service rendered.
During the 1980s, as today, the multilaterals World Bank, Inter-national Monetary Fund (IMF) and others advocated the airline’s closure.
Eventually, pressures led to privatisation.
But the bleeding continued for the same reasons. Our tourism industry required airlift from destinations that would not, on pure bottom-line business decisions, make sense.
In the mid 1980s, this columnist advocated in discussion with Air Jamaica’s finance
committee and board, sharing the cost incurred in promoting tourism.
If bread and butter routes – New York, Miami, Toronto – subsidised Los Angeles, Atlanta, Frankfurt and other gateways required for tourism, then taxpayers should not foot the whole bill.
Surely, an acceptable cost-sharing mechanism could be hammered out.
Sadly, the idea was an absolute non-starter. The result: Air Jamaica’s chance of showing a profit scuttled.
If the proposed sale is to be effected, after more than 40 years, some entity will be allowed to run Air Jamaica as a purely private business for the first time at last.
The problem must be fixed.
Successive governments, having decided airlift was a priority for tourism, didn’t reduce state expenditures in other areas to facilitate that decision.

top heavy management

It also appears that the airline operated with a top heavy and costly management structure.
Be that as it may, the Jamaican Government will now absorb Air Jamaica’s debt and, presumably, the company sold for a dollar!
Question is, to whom? How will the sale impact Jamaica’s travelling public that relies heavily on its operation? Will ‘high technology jobs’ afforded Jamaicans by the presence and operations of an international airline disappear? Will external benefits delivered also disappear? What of foreign exchange outflows required for payment to non-Jamaican carriers for travel and freight? Will the Air Jamaica brand be maintained? We don’t know; rumours suggest not.
But, why not sell the company to the staff for one dollar? Attach strings.
The staff themselves, according to their letter, propose some strings.
There should be a public offering to Jamaicans willing to buy into the new company.
Its routes must be further rationalised, top-heavy management structure made lean and efficiency become the ultimate operational driving force.
Transparency should be the hallmark of the new entity. Especially at this time of uncertainty, recall and reduction of interest rates on government debt, new and promising vehicles for investment opportunities become attractive.
All redundancy payments should become part of the capital of the new new-Air Jamaica. These monetary entitlements of staff shall become mandatory shareholding.
All the higglers who use the airline will presumably be happy to invest, for they know they will find similar accommodation nowhere else. The talent, skills, ingenuity and capital for such an enterprise exist in Jamaica.
The letter, fully accepting change is inevitable, includes this quote: “You are the catalyst of your own change and the pathway of your success – Arise and Stand”.
Borrowing from the Obama campaign and Jamaica’s flag, they say: “We know we can!
Indeed Hardships there are, but the land is green and the gold in our national carrier still shines.”
I should like to add a quote from the poem ‘Invictus’ (translation: unconquered), a hand-written copy of which Nelson Mandela kept on his Robben Island prison cell wall. In troubled times he recited some of these lines:
“I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.”
Air Jamaica has many captains. They alone can’t achieve rescue of an invaluable treasure which, once lost shall, perhaps, never be regained.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Since this column was written, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has said he will consider JALPA’s plea but only if the deal with Caribbean Airlines falls through.

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Diaspora urges PM to give priority to Pilots’ bid for AirJ

Sunday, January 31, 2010

THE Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board representing Jamaicans in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom has described Government’s intention to divest national carrier Air Jamaica to Trinidad’s Caribbean Airlines as “a crucial mistake with a long-term consequence for Jamaicans”.
Instead, the group is proposing that the Bruce Golding-led administration give priority to proposals submitted by the Jamaican Airline Pilot’s Association (JALPA) for the acquisition of the national carrier.

FFOLKES-ABRAHAMS… if each Jamaican was asked to buy a bond each year costing
US$10, I think we could have kept Air Jamaica in Jamaican ownership
ROBINSON… This divestment process has been going on well over a year (and) individuals were given time to present their proposals
MEADOWS… the position the Government takes is a common sense position as against the sentiments you have articulated

FFOLKES-ABRAHAMS… if each Jamaican was asked to buy a bond each year costing US$10, I think we could have kept Air Jamaica in Jamaican ownership 1/3
The airline workers this week said while they understood that the airline was a burden to taxpayers, it should remain in Jamaican hands if divested.
In a statement to the Joint Select Committee of Parliament on Diaspora Affairs at Gordon House last Thursday, the board said it refused to “stand silent and watch (its) birthright being sold”.
“The Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board has learned of the plan of the Jamaican Government to divest itself of our national airline Air Jamaica. While we understand that Air Jamaica has significant financial problems, we are concerned that our piece of Jamaica that flies will be given over to non-Jamaican ownership.
This, we believe, is a crucial mistake with a long-term consequence for Jamaicans,” representative Sharon Ffolkes-Abrahams said.
“We need to maintain our own air transportation to and from Jamaica if we are going to continue to make significant strides on the world scene,” she said.
“We understand that the Pilot’s Association and employee shareholders are in the process of putting together a bid for the acquisition of Air Jamaica. We are imploring the Government to give the employees an adequate and full opportunity to present their proposal and consider them seriously.
“We support their efforts to acquire, and urge you to give them first preference and priority over all other and potential offers,” Ffolkes-Abrahams said further.
“We say this because we feel it is important to keep things Jamaican, Jamaican,” she added.
According to Ffolkes-Abrahams the potential of the Jamaican Diaspora, which is estimated to number over ‘three million’, was yet untapped. She urged Government to develop a strategy to get funds through this medium to help offset the country’s debts.
“The various diplomatic offices, missions, churches, institutions could be requested to collect donations, the plans should be widely publicised by the government. Let us think for the long-term debt elimination and save this nation from financial devastation,” she said.
Government Senators Dennis Meadows and Committee Chair Ronald Robinson were, however, quick to point out that while the sentimental value of the airline was not missed, the debt burden was too much.
“We understand the sentiments, but we must also understand that it’s a cost we can’t afford at this time and, therefore, the position the government takes is a common sense position as against the sentiments you have articulated,” Meadows said.
“Far more developed and wealthier nations have taken a less emotional look at the issue. This divestment process has been going on well over a year (and) individuals were given time to present their proposals. I don’t think a year is rushing,” Robinson said. He also noted that the carrier was indebted to the tune of over US$ 1billion, and was costing the government of Jamaica $30 million daily in subsidy to
fly the seven planes and maintain the more than 1,200 workers and more than 100 pilots.
Opposition committee member Senator Sandrea Falconer, who sided with the Diaspora’s view, was taken to task for adopting a political stance in a ‘bi-partisan’ committee by Government Senator Laurie Broderick.
Falconer had contended that the Government had taken the wrong approach.
“The rush to sell it was high-handed at best. I think the Government could have engaged the Jamaican public, members of the staff and the Diaspora. If each Jamaican was asked to buy a bond each year costing US$10, I think we could have kept Air Jamaica in Jamaican ownership.
“I don’t think the pilot’s were given enough time or enough of a hearing and I don’t think they were treated properly,” Falconer said.
But a chiding Broderick said it was “erroneous” for Falconer to suggest that the divestment process was without consultation.
Opposition Senator Anthony Hylton, however, argued that the views of the Diaspora ought to have been taken in consideration. “It impacts them directly. Who are the “we” that were consulted?” Hylton asked.
In the meantime, addressing the issue in Parliament last Tuesday Prime Minister Bruce Golding more or less dismissed the pilots bid.
“Any entity that is proposing to take on Air Jamaica by debt financing, borrowing money, I would advise them sincerely, don’t go there. If you are not able to get in on the basis of equity, where you have the cash and you are prepared to invest that cash and put it at risk because you believe that you can make it work, then my advice is don’t go there,” the prime minister said.

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Jamaica PM flies in for Air Jamaica /CAL talks

NADALEEN SINGH
Published: 17 Dec 2009
NADALEEN SINGH
Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding flew into Trinidad yesterday to hold emergency talks on Air Jamaica and Caribbean Airlines aimed at securing the approval of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a US$1.2 billion loan that would be a lifeline for the sinking Jamaican economy.
The IMF has insisted that Jamaica divest Air Jamaica as a conditionality of the loan. Golding is expected to announce the agreement with the IMF in a highly anticipated speech today and the surprise visit to Trinidad on eve of his address was immediately taken by Jamaican sources to mean that the merger or acquisition of
Air Jamaica by Caribbean Airlines was discussed.
There was no acknowledgment of the relationship between Golding’s visit and the imminent IMF agreement in a statement put out by T&T’s Office of the Prime Minister, which said only that the talks “related to both Caribbean air carriers.” Trade and Industry Minister Mariano Browne has confirmed that a meeting to discuss Air Jamaica
and Caribbean Airlines Ltd took place yesterday at the Diplomatic Centre, St Ann’s.
According to a release from the Office of the Prime Minister, issued at 6.02 pm, Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding and a high level delegation from Jamaica met with Acting Prime Minister Dr Lenny Saith, Finance Minister Karen Tesheira and Browne. Golding left T&T following the meeting.
In a brief phone call last evening, Browne said: “The meeting did take place and the talks took place, but I cannot disclose further. Whatever is in the press release is the only information to be released.” Ian Brunton, chief executive officer, Caribbean Airlines, said he was not part of the talks and could not divulge any information. But in an interview with the Business Guardian in October, Brunton said talks about a possible merger between Air Jamaica and Caribbean Airlines were ongoing.
“If Air Jamaica comes—it did come—we were asked to bid on it by the government of Jamaica. We did. It appears we were not winners in that process, but it has not settled yet because the government of Jamaica has not made up its mind yet. It can still happen,” Brunton had said.
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Air Jamaica sale a hot debate

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