US$70 million loss for Caribbean Airlines

[Exile]

The reason is that our airlines are run by corrupt officials and inept managers and hampered by politicians...a lot of people benefit from the operation but the airline as a business loses....easy to drain funds from it seems..

[Exile]

Cut the BS Mosiah CA had a TT$100M profit up a fw years ago before new mgt and Air JA.

[Exile]

Yu tink Jet Blue Wanted it?

[Islandman]

I don't see why they would have. Air J should have been put out of its misery a long time ago.

[Peter R]

What airline? CAL? next time stop and buy yuh KFC firs'!

[Peter R]

I agree... every other airline only allows 1 bag up to 23kg while CAL to destinations outside the Caribbean allow 2, at 23 kg each. They also serve meals in-flight and I often wonder about who makes the meal covers and prints them; colourful fancy flip covers (heavy paper/thin cardboard mind you) on every meal served... always seemed wasteful to me.

Delta from TT to America only allows a carry on, you have to pay $29 US for 1 checked bag... IMO CAL could cut back on some of these standard offerings and start charging for them as extra services. On any flight that is less than four hours a hot meal is NOT necessary IMO and that includes all Caribbean, and Florida destinations. For me, as long as I get there safely dem cud gi mi nutten fi nyam or drink... just charge a competitive fare and yuh have mih!

[Peter R]

Exile, If I remember correctly, that figure was being disputed.

[Exile]

Ok... I read that somewhere today...under Lok Jack Mgt.

[Exile]

US$149m gone

Former chairman says Caribbean Airlines had money in the bank in 2010

By Curtis Rampersad Publications Editor


Story Created: May 9, 2012 at 10:54 PM ECT
Story Updated: May 9, 2012 at 10:54 PM ECT

State carrier Caribbean Airlines (CAL) had US$149 million or more than TT$900 million deposited in several banks and financial institutions at the beginning of 2010.
Now, only two years later, the airline which replaced its failed predecessor BWIA in January 2007, is reporting an unaudited loss of US$52.8 million (TT$339.5 million) for 2011.
Former CAL chairman Arthur Lok Jack recalled yesterday that when he and his board of directors resigned in June 2010 (following the May 24 general elections and change of government), the airline was in a healthy cash position and was without debt.
Now the airline's accounts are bleeding red, with its subsidiary Air Jamaica airline also saddled with a loss for 2011 of US$38.1 million (TT$245.2 million).
The airline's financial position was detailed by Finance Minister Winston Dookeran in the House of Representatives in Port of Spain on May 4.
Last year former CAL chairman George Nicholas declared a $200 million profit at the airline.
It was later suggested by Transport Minister Devant Maharaj that this figure was arrived at after looking at unaudited cash flows at the airline.
On May 5, Maharaj told reporters at an event at the Vehicle Management Corporation at Beetham that his People's Partnership Government met a significant amount of debts in a number of State agencies (including CAL) incurred by the former PNM administration.
Yesterday, a visibly upset Lok Jack told the Express in an exclusive interview at his Associated Brands Industries Ltd offices in Barataria that he, and the other former board members, needed to clarify the financial state of CAL when they gave up their directors positions in June 2010.
He said the previous board- which included energy executive Robert Riley, Neal & Massy executive Gervase Warner, industrial relations expert Shafeek Sultan-Khan and finance expert William Lucie-Smith (who resigned before 2010) had refrained from previously speaking about CAL's performance but believed it was necessary to correct certain statements now.
The Lok Jack-led board of directors was installed in 2007 when CAL was formed.
"When we resigned in 2010, there was US$140 million in cash in CAL's fixed deposits," Lok Jack.
The Express was shown both unaudited and audited financial statements for the airline which indicated CAL's cash reserves at various financial institutions.
For instance, CAL had US$48 million at Citibank, US$30 million in First Citizens, US$22 million in FirstCaribbean International Bank, US$29 million in the Unit Trust Corporation, US$11 million in Guardian Asset Management, US$21 million in RBTT, US$3 million in Roytrin and US$4 million in Venezuela's Banco Mercantil.
Lok Jack said when he and his directors resigned, they submitted a substantial dossier to Corporation Sole and Finance Minister Winston Dookeran, detailing the airline's healthy cash position.
In their joint resignation letter, the directors said its was "imperative that every effort be made to secure the beneficial position which the airline now enjoys and ensure that it is not put at risk through inaction or errors of judgment".
The resignation letter pointed out that the directors were leaving CAL in a "strong competitive position, and in a healthy cash position with no debt".
In last Sunday's Express, former chairman Nicholas in a statement said the board he inherited had not filed financials for a considerable period and left many bills unpaid, saying it was something that was ignored at the expense of making political and personal jibes.
Lok Jack defended the performance of his board yesterday, saying, "Nothing could be further from the truth. There were audited accounts for 2007, 2008 and at the time we demitted office (June 2010,) the audited accounts for 2009 were being completed.
"Each month, financials were prepared on a monthly and year-to-date basis in addition, every quarter these financials were reviewed by the Audit Committee of the board. So to say "the board he inherited had not filed financials for a considerable period…" is completely false."
Lok Jack said his directors had come up with a plan to purchase four turbo prop aircraft to replace CAL's aging fleet of Dash-8 aircraft for use on the Tobago airbridge route as well as for short range flights to nearby islands.
He said this would be done without using CAL's cash as financing arrangements were being put in place through international financial institutions in France and Italy.
Aviation industry sources familiar with CAL's operations told the Express yesterday that CAL in 2011 paid downpayments up front for new ATR aircraft from France using its own cash and also spent some of its own money on the issues related to the Air Jamaica merger.

[Exile]

Devant Maharaj: Lok Jack can’t advise meThursday, June 21 2012
TRANSPORT MINISTER Devant Maharaj said he is not taking any advice from former Caribbean Airlines (CAL) chairman Arthur Lok Jack or using a report developed by the board which Lok Jack chaired, in order to determine which routes the airline will or will not be pursuing under its merger arrangement with Air Jamaica. Maharaj made this declaration when he spoke to reporters following the launch of CAL’s Trinidad to Gatwick, London service at Piarco International Airport last Thursday.
Lok Jack chaired the board of CAL prior to May 24, 2010 when the People’s Partnership assumed office. Maharaj told reporters he would be going to Jamaica before the end of this month to hold talks with Jamaica’s Transport Minister Omar Davies on matters pertaining to the CAL-Air Jamaica merger.

Reminded by reporters that Lok Jack’s board had prepared a report containing recommendations regarding the profitability of Air Jamaica’s routes, Maharaj was asked whether he would be using the contents of that report to assist in developing a strategy to improve the operations of both airlines under the merger.

“I take no advice from a PNM-appointed board because the documents they left proved to be very worthless,” Maharaj declared. He claimed Air Jamaica suffered losses of $45 million before the merger took place under the former PNM government but the Lok Jack board “recommended we take over these routes as a profitable enterprise and could result in some 68 percent profitability for CAL.”

“I am very suspicious to embrace their projections and analysis,” Maharaj stated. On May 4, Finance Minister Winston Dookeran told the Parliament that CAL suffered a total loss of $584 million last year. That figured included a loss of $339 million for CAL and $245 million for Air Jamaica. Dookeran also indicated at that sitting of Parliament that out of a sum of US$6 million which CAL had pledged to donate to the Children’s Life Fund, a pet project of Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, only US$200,000 had in fact been donated.

With respect to the London route, Maharaj said CAL must ensure this route is profitable in under one year’s time or it could be scrapped. In his earlier address at the launch, Maharaj recalled the sale of BWIA’s slots at London’s Heathrow International Airport. He said Attorney General Anand Ramlogan was very close to completing a forensic audit into “the steal of the Heathrow slots.” Stating he recently held discussions with members of the Tobago division of the TT Chamber of Industry and Commerce in the sister isle about airlift capacity for the island, Maharaj boasted CAL had increased its number of flights to Tobago.

He claimed in spite of this, “the still belligerent THA (Tobago House of Assembly)” refuses to meet with him. He hinted this would change when the THA elections are held next year. The THA is currently controlled by the PNM.

Saying the London route could provide CAL with access to the Scandinavian countries (Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Iceland), Maharaj said CAL is looking at a Tobago to JFK route as well.

[Peter R]

Politics getting in the way of the managing of the airline... dem too petty! all ah dem!

[Exile]

I agree on the wanton waste with the fancy 60's packaging which seem to have gone...so has the food....I wld willingly pay USD100 less for not even water...
BUT CAL charges USD75 for overweight (50-70lbs) and USD150 for extra bag and USD225 for heavy extra bag...so that's probably where they make money knowing Caribbean peoples' penchant for shopping....

[Exile]

I had a bag of strawberries and a bag of blueberries....

[Exile]

CAL chairman: Part of US$149m went into Air Jamaica

Caribbean Airlines (CAL) chairman Rabindra Moonan said yesterday the airline used part of the US$149 million in cash left by the PNM-appointed board of the airline to acquire Air Jamaica and purchase two ATR aircraft.
Moonan was responding to a newspaper report yesterday which stated the previous CAL board had left the airline with US$149 million in cash when the board, which was chaired by entrepreneur Arthur Lok Jack, resigned in June 2010. He said: “Part of the merger plan with Air Jamaica required some of that money to be put there. Remember that we have a lot of expenditures to pay out. “This money is collected over a period of time... you have high peak periods, you have low peak periods. It is a fund which will go up and down most of the time. It is a revolving fund. You save when you have and you spend when you don’t have.”

Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday, Lok Jack said no money was paid by CAL to acquire Air Jamaica. He said the T&T Government provided CAL with US$50 million in equity to finance the integration of the two airlines.
Lok Jack explains that the Jamaican Government absorbed Air Jamaica’s sizeable debts and severance costs to ensure that CAL acquired a debt-free airline. The Jamaican Government also provided CAL with US$19 million to indemnify pre-paid tickets. Lok Jack said under his watch a decision was made not to take up all Air Jamaica routes but only the ones that were viable and profitable. Part of the reason for the depletion of CAL’s cash reserves was because of the bad route structure which changed after his board resigned, he said. Regarding the purchase of ATRs, Lok Jack said the previous board’s plan was to buy four ATRs and not the nine that the airline eventually contracted to purchase. He said the CAL board was in negotiations with aircraft manufacturer ATR, which is partly owned by the Governments of France and Italy, to buy the four aircraft using export credit financing with a small downpayment and the balance to be paid over 12 years at an interest rate of one to two per cent.

The board under Lok Jack was able to negotiate these terms because, at the time, CAL’s balance sheet was sound, the airline was owned by the Government and T&T had an investment-grade rating from the credit rating agencies. Newspaper reports last year indicated that instead of this favourable arrangement for four aircraft, at least the first two of the nine ATRs acquired last year were paid for in cash at a cost of US$19 million each, which would have depleted CAL’s profits. One company, two brands were definitely not the direction to go as that would mean increased costs to market the two brands, said Lok Jack. Mariano Brown, former T&T finance minister, said yesterday the Air Jamaica acquisition was a “non-cash” transaction. He added: “The board of CAL and the Government of T&T in consideration were taking over the routes, what we consider to be the ‘profitable routes, and therefore expanding and increasing the profitability of CAL. “We would give the Government of Jamaica a ten per cent shareholding, that was it. “The Government of Jamaica signed an indemnity agreement to pick-up any residual cost that may have been incurred by CAL, that was not as a result of its own making, that the Government of Jamaica wouldn’t pay,” he added.

[Don1]

Lok Jack explains that the Jamaican Government absorbed Air Jamaica’s sizeable debts and severance costs to ensure that CAL acquired a debt-free airline. The Jamaican Government also provided CAL with US$19 million to indemnify pre-paid tickets

As I've been saying since jump...this supposed "sale" of Air J was a Gelding giveaway

Apart from absorbing hundreds of millions in liabilites dem did also gi di Trini dem US$19m?? Ah wha dis Faada?

Man fi fool but nuh suh