KINGSTON – Jamaica’s Information and Development Minister, Senator Colin Campbell, has said that Board members and the Management of Air Jamaica have projected that the airline would incur reduced operating losses and anticipate an improved performance this fiscal year.
This is based on a re-organisation report submitted to the Cabinet on Monday, May 1 by Air Jamaica’s officials, detailing the operations plan of the national airline for the current financial year.
Senator Campbell, who was speaking to journalists at the weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, said the projected loss for Air Jamaica for this fiscal year was $32.6 million, which marked a significant reduction from the previous year, when losses amounted to approximately $119 million.
“That is a loss,” he said, noting further that the airline’s operations “will have to seek the necessary funding to carry on a vibrant operation based upon the performance this year, which the company is expecting to be much better than last year”.
Mr. Campbell said that to date, Air Jamaica has made progress in respect of its on-time performance, and reliability.
“They have managed to have a fairly good out-turn in terms of their cancellations this year over where they are coming from in the previous period, when some of the carriers were taken out of service on the instructions of the Civil Aviation Authority,” the Minister added.
The report made by Air Jamaica’s Board and Management, Senator Campbell informed, examined a revised hub structure for the airline as well as the marketing and commercial offerings the airline would be making to the public.
Other issues addressed in the report are fleet rationalisation, route rationalisation, changing and improving staff morale, improving the management of the company, and the possible establishment of partnerships with other airlines, particularly US airlines.
Minister Campbell told journalists that while he could not speak on specifics contained in the report, as some information could be considered proprietary at this time, “the airline will, in due course, be able to brief the press about the highlights of their re-organised operating system”.
“For example, some of the negotiations they are doing, I really can’t say whether they have been completed, so I wouldn’t want to call a partner, which they are in the process of negotiating something with, until those negotiations are finalised and they are able to report to the Jamaican people as to exactly what is the nature of the agreement,” he added.
