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Air Jamaica can be healthy and viable
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Before today's exciting advancement in medical technology, millions of people used to die needlessly. Thankfully, that is no longer the case.
The relentless search for solutions and the application of scholarship have always proven to be mankind's greatest assets in the unending quest for development.
That is why we are confident that Air Jamaica, our national airline - contrary to the views of those who are bankrupt of ideas and have no sense of national feeling - can and must be restored to vibrancy, to continue to play its vital role in enriching the Jamaican economy.
One must, of course, admit that the national airline is in an unholy financial mess which cannot be allowed to continue as it is - a drain on the national economy.
There is an unfortunate parallel between how the economy was destroyed by the previous administration, leading to the 'finsac-king' of the financial sector, and the way the national airline was left to run down. In both cases, all the Government could do was to cast blame and seek to destroy the reputation of hard-working Jamaicans who took risks to build their businesses and this country.
Perhaps, in the same way that an inquiry is being proposed to determine what happened in the Finsac story, we might need to look at what has happened to put Air Jamaica in its current state.
We know for certain that in the decade 1994 to 2004, the airline was the pride and joy of Jamaicans everywhere. With the application of Jamaican genius, the airline broke all sorts of new ground, despite the tailspin into which the world aviation industry had fallen after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Add to that the imposition of a Category 2 US$250 million punishment by the United States, prior to the acquisition of the airline.
Air Jamaica's contribution to the national economy was conservatively estimated at US$5.49 billion between 1995 and 2004, according to a highly reputable study conducted by the International Centre for Air Transportation's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
This was achieved and with style too: an unprecedented and innovative marketing promotion that introduced champagne flights; the flying chef; 'the on-time no-line airline'; the smartest airplanes in the sky, and the Montego Bay hub, among the other lively creations that Jamaicans here and abroad came to love and take for granted.
Things had gone so well that when the Government offered to pay over money it owed to the airline, the Air Jamaica Acquisition Group (AJAG) turned it down, suggesting that it was more needed in other areas of the economy. Of course, they lived to regret that because when the money was eventually needed, the Government's help was nowhere to be seen. Yet the administration was never short on interfering in areas it knew nothing about and in which it had no expertise, which led to the withdrawal of AJAG.
Over the 10-year period, it cost the airline US$700 million to remain in the skies in a hostile environment. But match that to the US$5 billion in benefits to the economy through employment, goods and services and tax revenue.
It is also well-known that the presence of convenient airline schedules makes a country or region more attractive for business and tourist travel. That is why the Eastern Caribbean stuck with the loss-making LIAT Airlines and Trinidad with BWIA, now Caribbean Airlines.
Before we abandon Air Jamaica, let us put on our thinking cap. We made it viable before, we can do it again.
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Before today's exciting advancement in medical technology, millions of people used to die needlessly. Thankfully, that is no longer the case.
The relentless search for solutions and the application of scholarship have always proven to be mankind's greatest assets in the unending quest for development.
That is why we are confident that Air Jamaica, our national airline - contrary to the views of those who are bankrupt of ideas and have no sense of national feeling - can and must be restored to vibrancy, to continue to play its vital role in enriching the Jamaican economy.
One must, of course, admit that the national airline is in an unholy financial mess which cannot be allowed to continue as it is - a drain on the national economy.
There is an unfortunate parallel between how the economy was destroyed by the previous administration, leading to the 'finsac-king' of the financial sector, and the way the national airline was left to run down. In both cases, all the Government could do was to cast blame and seek to destroy the reputation of hard-working Jamaicans who took risks to build their businesses and this country.
Perhaps, in the same way that an inquiry is being proposed to determine what happened in the Finsac story, we might need to look at what has happened to put Air Jamaica in its current state.
We know for certain that in the decade 1994 to 2004, the airline was the pride and joy of Jamaicans everywhere. With the application of Jamaican genius, the airline broke all sorts of new ground, despite the tailspin into which the world aviation industry had fallen after the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Add to that the imposition of a Category 2 US$250 million punishment by the United States, prior to the acquisition of the airline.
Air Jamaica's contribution to the national economy was conservatively estimated at US$5.49 billion between 1995 and 2004, according to a highly reputable study conducted by the International Centre for Air Transportation's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
This was achieved and with style too: an unprecedented and innovative marketing promotion that introduced champagne flights; the flying chef; 'the on-time no-line airline'; the smartest airplanes in the sky, and the Montego Bay hub, among the other lively creations that Jamaicans here and abroad came to love and take for granted.
Things had gone so well that when the Government offered to pay over money it owed to the airline, the Air Jamaica Acquisition Group (AJAG) turned it down, suggesting that it was more needed in other areas of the economy. Of course, they lived to regret that because when the money was eventually needed, the Government's help was nowhere to be seen. Yet the administration was never short on interfering in areas it knew nothing about and in which it had no expertise, which led to the withdrawal of AJAG.
Over the 10-year period, it cost the airline US$700 million to remain in the skies in a hostile environment. But match that to the US$5 billion in benefits to the economy through employment, goods and services and tax revenue.
It is also well-known that the presence of convenient airline schedules makes a country or region more attractive for business and tourist travel. That is why the Eastern Caribbean stuck with the loss-making LIAT Airlines and Trinidad with BWIA, now Caribbean Airlines.
Before we abandon Air Jamaica, let us put on our thinking cap. We made it viable before, we can do it again.