CARIBBEAN AIRLINES

On 12SEP01, Aero Ferinco's Czech-built twin-engine LET 410 (XA-TAU) with 16 tourists, a Mexican guide and two pilots crashed killing all on board. The crash occurred just before 1700 near the village of Tinum shortly after taking off from Chichen Itza on a 40-minute return trip under a clear, sunny sky to Cozumel. The aircraft was flying at about 500 feet when it began turning onto a course requested by the air traffic controller, but did not stop turning and suddenly plunged to the ground. The pilot Jose Luis Romero had 7,100 hours flying time and co-pilot Aurelio Perez Escalante more than 1,000.

The tourists, all Americans, had arrived on a cruise ship and had taken the Aero Ferinco-chartered plane to see the Mayan Ruins in the southern Yucatan state.

The airline, based on Cozumel, flies in the Yucatan Peninsula to Guatemala and Cuba. It specialises in chartered air tours.

News

15NOV02 Aerocaribbean will launch Santiago de Cuba (SCU) to Santo Domingo (SDQ) on 18NOV02. The one-hour flight will operate with an ATR-42 on Mondays and Fridays.

Description
Operates scheduled flights within Cuba using ATRs and charters to the Caribbean and South America. Cargo charters are operated to Canada, the Caribbean, Europe and South America.

President: Julian Alvarez

1 x Antonov-An-248
3 x Antonov-An-26
3 x ATR 42-300
1 x ATR 72-200
3 x Ilyushin II-18D
3 x Yakovlev Yak-40

Formerly known as Aerotours Dominicano.

News

10MAY03 Deal with Viva has fallen through.

01MAR03 Sold to Viva Airlines.

08OCT02 AeroContinente Dominicana launched services on 04OCT02 from Santo Domingo to Havana. Flights operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays using the Boeing 737-200. These flights follow the launch of a Santo Domingo-Aruba service on 09AUG02, also on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It seems as if one aircraft is used for all flights, ie Santo Domingo-Aruba return followed by Santo Domingo-Havana return.

14MAY02
Startup carrier AeroContinente Dominicana plans on operating a pair of Boeing 737-200s on wet-lease from AeroContinente Chile, with which the Dominican carrier is holding discussions on cooperative marketing arrangements. These aircraft are registered CC-CJP and CC-CJR and plans are to operate daily service from Santo Domingo to both New York JFK and Miami. AeroContinente Dominicana is also in discussions with the owner of AeroContinente Chile, Peru-based Aero Continente, which is developing a hub in Santo Domingo

Destinations
Santo Domingo, Havana.

Description
Headquartered at Baracoa Military Air Base some 10 miles from Havana. Although it is incorporated as a private company, it is staffed completely by military personnel and is 100 per cent state-owned.

Operates domestic passenger charters for the Cuban national tourist authority as well as private airplane rental services to foreign businessmen.

Destinations
These include Baracoa, Cayo Largo and Varadero.

12 x Antonov-An-26
9 x Antonov-An-268
1 x Antonov An-30
3 x ATR 42-300
4 x Yakovlev Yak-40
15 x Mil Mi-8-P

28JUN03 Aeromar will inaugurate service from Santo Domingo to four destinations using the Boeing 737-300 operated by another carrier. On 10JUL03, Aruba and onto Caracas will be served on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. On 29JUL03, it will be Curaçao on the same days. Then on 15AUG03, it will be Havana on Mondays and Fridays.

10MAY03 Aeromar has returned permanently their leased 767-300ER from Air Atlanta. Aeromar will also reduce their JFK-SDQ (Santo Domingo) frequencies from twice-daily to daily on 03JUL03 and from daily to four weekly flights on 18SEP03. Aeromar will also go from daily to four weekly flights on the Miami-SDQ route on 04SEP03.

21DEC02 Aeromar is celebrating its first year flying to New York, having transported 100,000 passengers there from Santo Domingo, Santiago and Puerto Plata. Having chosen the worst moment to start -- right after the tragic events of 11 September and the AA587 crash, they only had a Boeing 727 with capacity for 170 passengers, which resulted in lots of luggage getting left behind. Little by little, however, the situation improved and today Aeromar passengers fly on wet-leased Boeing 757s and a 767s with increased capacity for 200 and 232 passengers respectively and more luggage. There are three daily flights from Santo Domingo (two operated by Icelandair with the 757, one operated by Air Atlanta with the 767-300) and two daily flights from Santiago (operated by Air Atlanta with the 767).

The airline pays commission to the travel agencies and has a special plan to encourage senior travelers. There are plans next year to start a frequent flyer club and incorporate first-class seats. Aeromar says that it challenged the "monster" American Airlines with service, with moro, mangú and Dominican flight attendants who cared for the passengers in a special way. The airline aims to transport 200,000 passengers in 2003.

23NOV02 Aeromar axed its service between Puerto Plata and New York Kennedy two days ago. However, a second daily service commences today between Santo Domingo and New York Kennedy using a Boeing 767-300 wet-leased from Air Atlanta.

27JUL02 From 08SEP02, Aeromar will add a Thursday and Sunday flight from Santigo to New York Kennedy to make it a daily service. Flights will be operated by Icelandair using the Boeing 757 on a wet-lease basis. Incumbents on this route are American (4 flights a day),

24MAY02 Aeromar yesterday inaugurated a service from Santo Domingo to San Juan and from San Juan to Puerto Plata. The flights operate four times a week using a wet-leased Boeing 727 of Planet Airways.

03APR03 Aeromar will on inaugurate the following flights from New York Kennedy to Dominican Republic using a wet-leased 727 from Falcon Air Express.

On 24MAY02: Santiago on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

On 25MAY02: Puerto Plata on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Flights will return the following day.

These flights will supplement those to Santo Domingo from JFK (five weekly) and Miami (three weekly).

The US DoT approved in July 1999 a one-year initial exemption for Aeromar to engage in scheduled foreign combination service between Santo Domingo and San Juan, Puerto Rico, but only under wet-lease with a carrier certificated by DOT.

Aeromar began scheduled passenger service between Santo Domingo and Miami in November 1998 and has also operated scheduled cargo service on this route for some years. Passenger Punta Cana and Puerto Plata flights are also now operated into Miami. All passenger flights are operated under a wet-lease agreement with Falcon Air Express using a Boeing 727.

Aeromar has been operating cargo services since 1968.

Flights to the Caribbean

Destinations: Miami, New York Kennedy, Santo Domingo, Santigo

Executives
President: Rayan Polanco

18MAR02 On 14MAR02, a chartered Antonov AN-2 (CU-T1020) was on a flight from Cienfuegos to the island of Cayo Coco when it broke up in midair at about 3,000 feet and crashed at about 1630 into a dam in central Cuba about 165 miles (265 km) east of Havana. All on board - two crew members and 14 passengers - were killed. The victims comprised a German couple, four Cubans, four Britons and six Canadians, including two children. A preliminary investigation indicated that the top part of the left wing was ripped off in high winds, causing the aircraft to spiral down out of control.

Although it was the first accident involving an An-2 in 41 years of use in Cuba, a 100 such aircraft, all run by the state and mainly used for transporting tourists and crop-spraying, were grounded during investigations.

The single-engine AN-2, first flown in 1947, is the world's largest biplane. More than 18,000 were built in the Soviet Union and Poland and several thousand remain in service around the world. The aircraft are not certified for commercial service in Canada or the United States.

Description
Based at Cayo Largo and Varadeo, state-owned Aerotaxi operates basic services within Cuba and some Caribbean charters.

41 x PZL Mielec (Antonov) An-2
4 x Boeing (Douglas) DC-3

10SEP01 After extensive negotiations, Air ALM has wet-leased with effect from 11SEP01 64-seat ATR-72s from American Eagle for one month. The aircraft will be used to operate from Curaçao four daily flights to Bonaire and two daily flights to Aruba. Air ALM has a Dash 8-300 and an MD-82 in C-check and two Dash 8-300s grounded by its lessor, leaving the airline with only one Dash 8-300 and two MD-82s. This is causing capacity problems especially on the routes from Curaçao to Bonaire and Aruba.

The bankrupt airline is due to be dissolved in September 2001 and replaced by Dutch Caribbean Airlines.

The Island Territory of Curaçao quietly took over Air ALM's assets for 28 million guilders (US$15.7m) on 03MAY01. During an extraordinary meeting of the Executive Council, it was agreed that the airline's possessions, including the planes, would be purchased from the Central Government in an executorial sale. That sale was the result of the attachment placed on the company's assets by the Island Receiver on 17APR01 because of a tax debt of 44.3 million guilders (US$24.9m). This was followed on 07MAY01 by the Federal Receiver which slapped a lien on the airline's assets to protect itself against an outstanding debt of about 20 million guilders (US$11.2m) the airline owes the Central Government. The Federal Receiver and the Island Receiver, both preferential creditors, have agreed to proportionally divide the assets valued at 28 million guilders (US$15.7m).

Air ALM is in desperate financial trouble with debts of over 260 million guilders (US$103.4m), and had asked the government to provide the 40 million guilders (US$15.9m) to reorganise the airline and prepare it for privatisation.

In a bid to capture a share of the 700,000 passengers who travel between Europe and the Netherlands Antilles each year, Air ALM launched on 10DEC00 twice-weekly flights from Amsterdam to Curaçao using an MD-11 wet-leased from Belgian carrier Citybird in a 35/335 Business/Economy class configuration.

On 09NOV00, flights between Port-au-Prince and Miami were re-started, 6/week using an MD80.

In October 2000, the local Netherlands Antilles government announced the airline's privatisation and will retain a 20% stake. Private investors from the Netherlands Antilles will have 30%, overseas investors 30%, employees 10% and the remainder will be allocated. BWIA CEO Conrad Aleong is offering to bid along with a private investor.

In July 2000 ALM said it will eliminate 120 of 900 jobs, apply a fuel surcharge, reduce flight attendants, increase monthly pilots' flight hours from 55 to 80 and postpone painting their new name on the aircraft livery in order to reduce losses. This is part of Operational Plan 2000 whose aim is to reduce ALM's huge losses to one million guilders per month during 2000 on the way to profitability. Cuts in staff costs are planned to deliver approximately eight million guilders in reduced costs, while an additional six illion guilders in cost reduction will be achieved through better planning and efficiency in all departments and in particular the Maintenance Department.

On operations, the plan calls for the elimination of non-profitable routes and reduction of frequencies on routes that will not function without additional feed. Effective June 1, 2000 flights to Atlanta were axed and there were fewer flights to Maracaibo, Kingston, Bonaire and San Juan. The ending of the cooperation agreement with Martinair made it necessary to reduce the number of cabin attendants, while another reduction in this same group is imperative when the agreement with KLM expires in April 2001 after 21 years. ALM is planning to lay off 129 employees, half of its ground handling staff of 224 and 17 from the catering department. The lay offs are the direct result of the KLM ending its cooperation with ALM. Management expects a turnover loss of between 35 and 40 per cent as a consequence. The union NAPLB is conscious of the problem, but wants to present a counter proposal.

ALM has been spurred into action by its major shareholder, the cash-strapped Netherlands Antilles government, which has told the airline that it must make it on its own.

Pass: ALM offers a 30-day Caribbean Airpass

Alliances: WINAIR

Flights to the Caribbean

Destinations: Curaçao, Santo Domingo

President & CEO Mario Evertsz

On 23AUG98, Air Anguilla flight 947 crashed in Dominica killing all 10 passengers on board and the pilot, Nigerian national Chris Elbouda. It was the worst crash in Dominican history.

The Air Anguilla Cessna 402 had been chartered by Dominican airline Cardinal Airlines to fly from St Maarten to Dominica's Melville Hall, but crashed into the mountains at Marigot on approach to Melville Hall.

Two years later, compensation still had not yet been paid to the victims' relatives.

Destinations (scheduled) Anguilla-St Thomas (Daily)

Destinations (charter) Anguilla to St Maarten, Tortola (British Virgin Islands) and San Juan.

Description Guadeloupe-based carrier began operations in December 2002.

Destinations Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, St Martin (SFG)

On 23OCT00, Air Aruba suspended all operations after it was forced to return half its fleet to a lessor following a cash shortage. The carrier previously operated a fleet of six aircraft, but its three MD-90s were returned to Hwa-Hsia Leasing Ltd as payments were not made. Compounding its troubles, the airline has one MD-88 in the middle of C maintenance check and a second undergoing engine repairs. Both MD-88s are on lease from GE Capital Aviation Services. The sixth aircraft, a DC-9, is not hushkitted and cannot fly to US destinations.

The suspension occurs as traffic was growing and flights were pretty full for the winter season.

Air Aruba has not sought bankruptcy but says it is too early to determine if and when it will resume flights. However, four days after suspending flights, the US government suspended Air Aruba's licence to fly into the US and the Aruba government followed suit.

Aruba's Oranjestad airport has sued Air Aruba for $2.2 million in unpaid bills.

In July 1998, ASERCA Airlines of Venezuela took a 70% stake in FQ while the govenment of Aruba retained a 30% ownership in the airline.

Ceased trading.

Destinations: Fort-de-France, Pointe-à-Pitre, St Martin

31OCT03 Air Caraïbes will launch its first long-haul service from Paris Orly to Fort de France on 13DEC03 and to Pointe-à-Pitre on 14DEC03. Flights to Fort de France will operate on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, flights to Pointe-à-Pitre will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. All flights will use the Airbus A330-200. It is not known who is the operator of the flights.

There will be three cabin classes: Madras, Caraïbes (Economy Plus) and Sun (Economy).

02DEC02 Air Caraïbes will launch a Santo Domingo-St Maarten service on 16DEC02. There will be three flights a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays using a 50-seat jet Embraer ERJ 145. The flight takes 50 minutes. Flight TX7865 will depart Santo Domingo (SDQ) at 1055 and arrive in St Maarten (SXM) at 1200. The return flight TX7864 departs at 1240 and arrives at 1345. There is a promotional fare of US$220 plus taxes.

01SEP01 Air Caraïbes will launch a Fort-de-France-Port of Spain-Cayenne service on behalf of Air France from 29OCT01 using the Embraer ERJ-145. Flights will be on Mondays and Fridays.

Twenty people died after an Air Caraïbes DHC-6 Twin Otter crashed on 24th March 2001 into a house on the "Col de la Tourmente" in the upmarket French holiday island of St Barts killing all 19 adult people on board (17 passengers and two pilots) and a elderly man in the house. The man's wife was injured.

Flight TX1601 was scheduled to leave at 1600 from Princess Juliana airport (SXM), St Maarten, for the 15-minute flight to St Jean airport (SBH), St Barts, and crashed about 1,000 feet from the St Jean airport while on approach to the airport's Runway 10 in clear visibility at about 1630. The airport's runway is particularly short - about 2,170 feet - and pilots have to obtain a special DGAC certification to land there. Planes approaching the runway must make a quick descent and fly low over houses before landing. The airline has set up a crisis telephone number (00 33 590 211238) for worried friends and relatives and has chartered a plane to bring relatives from France to the crash site.

The airport's control tower gave the plane permission to land shortly before the crash. That was the last communication with the plane, which did not send out any distress signal. The aircraft had no cockpit voice recorder, which may hamper the accident investigation.

Most of the passengers are believed to be French, though there was an American woman, a Dutch woman, two Belgians and one person with dual French and American citizenship. A pilot from Guadeloupe was on board and another crew member, whose nationality was unknown.

The aircraft registration was F-OGES, construction number was 254 and the build date was 1969.

Air Caraïbes now has a timetable (see below) showing five daily departures from St Maarten to St Barts using 9-seat Cessna 208B Grand Caravans (Air Saint Martin's fleet of eight were acquired following its merger with Air Caraïbes). This is a much reduced schedule compared with the eight daily flights operated by Air Saint Barthelemy using 19-seat DHC-6 Twin Otters. Air Saint Barthelemy has also merged with Air Caraïbes.

• TX1301 Depart 1300
• TX1401 Depart 1400
• TX1501 Depart 1500
• TX1601 Depart 1600
• TX1701 Depart 1715

The daily St Martin-San Juan service was started on 01FEB01, making it five daily flights from the Grand Case L'Esperance airport. TX decided on this new service after receiving news about the planned L'Esperance airport expansion.

The daily service into Union Island from St Vincent was axed after 14JAN01.

Description
Formed through the merger of Air Guadeloupe (including its subsidiary Air Martinique), Air St Martin, Air St Barthelemy and Air Caraïbes in July 2000 using the name of the majority stockholder for the merged company, Air Caraïbes is now one of the bigger operator of regional flights although several aircraft and some routes were axed during 2002. The merger, strongly supported by island governments highly dependent on income from tourism, is expected to increase both regional traffic and connecting international arrivals from Europe and North America. Expansion is planned to Port of Spain, Santo Domingo, Brazil, Cuba and Guyana.

Air Caraïbes will also integrate its charter arm Caraïbes Air Transport.

All flights use the former Air Guadeloupe TX code.

Alliances:

Founding member of CaribSky

Main bases: Pointe-à-Pitre Le Raizet (PTP), Fort-de-France Le Lamentin (FDF)

Call Sign: French West

Destinations: Fort-de-France, La Désirade (DSD), Marie-Galante (GBJ), Pointe-à-Pitre, Santo Domingo, St Barthelemy (SBH), St Lucia George F L Charles (SLU), St Maarten (from 16DEC02), St Martin (SFG), Terre-de-Haute (LSS).

President: Eric Koury
CEO: Philippe Chevalier

4 x Fairchild Dornier 228-200
4 x Cessna Caravan
2 x ATR 72-500
2 x ATR 42-500
2 x Embraer ERJ 145

In August 2000, ordered six Embraer regional jets, with two ERJ-145s due in December 2000, two ERJ-170s due in September 2003 and two options.

On 23OCT00, Air Caribbean was put into receivership by its major creditor, the government-owned First Citizens Bank, and all flights were cancelled until further notice. The bank had loaned the airline TT$100m (US$16m) to set up the airline in 1993. Also owing was TT$1.2 million (US$190,440) to the employees' pension plan. The airline's 300 employees face an uncertain future.

Flights between Port of Spain and Miami had already been suspended since late September.

One of the airline's three Boeing 737-200s has been reportedly seized by TACA Airlines which is owed US$1.4m for hushkitting the jet.

In June 2000, the US DOT granted Air Caribbean authority for service between Port of Spain and Orlando, via intermediate points Antigua, Barbados, Granada, St. Kitts and St. Lucia. Air Caribbean received a separate exemption for Georgetown, Guyana-Miami service via Port of Spain.

Started Miami to Port of Spain on 02FEB00, four times a week using 124-seat Boeing 727-200s, though payload-restricted to 80 seats (subsequently raised to 100).

Destinations: Barbados, Georgetown, Grenada, Miami, Port of Spain, St Lucia George F L Charles (from 28OCT00), Tobago

Chairman: Leslie Lucky Samaroo

3 x Boeing 737-200
1 x NAMC YS-11A-600 freighter
5 x NAMC YS-11A-500

Charters from San Juan to BVI, USVI, St Maarten, St Martin and St Barts.

One of the only three companies in Puerto Rico capable and certified to handle emergency medical flights.

15NOV02 Air D'Ayiti will increase its thrice-weekly service from Port-au-Prince to New York Kennedy to daily from 14DEC02-04APR03, after which it reverts to the previous frequency. All flights are operated by Falcon Air using a Boeing 727 on a wet-lease basis.

17MAY02 Air D'Ayiti is planning to resume operations on 15JUN02 by offering a daily service between Miami and Port-au-Prince. Flights will be operated on a wet-lease basis by Falcon Air using the Boeing 727-200.

Description aka Haïti Aviation. Charter airline launched in 1997 by Charles Voigt, used a Boeing 727 wet-leased from Allegro Airlines to operate 3/weekly Miami flights.

Its commuter shuttle Air d'Ayiti Express used to fly from Port-au-Prince to Cap Haïtien, Port-de-Paix, and Jérémie, but operations were suspended when its manager Antonin Voigt, brother of Charles, fled from a US Customs drugs bust in July 2000. Operations ceased in December December 2001.

Destinations: Miami, New York Kennedy, Port-au-Prince

Owner: Charles Voigt

Description
Operates scheduled flights within Guyane and charters to neighbouring countries. Bookings may only be made at the Air Guyane Voyages agency.

Destinations (domestic)
Cayenne, Maripasoula (MPY), Saul (XAU), St Georges de L'oyapock (OYP)

17APR05 Air Jamaica, which shocked the eastern Caribbean with its abrupt withdrawal of service on 18 March, will resume limited service on 17 April. On Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays there will be a Kingston-Barbados-Grenada-New York Kennedy service, with return flights the next day. Flights will be operated with a 150-seat Airbus A320. No service will be operated to St Lucia, even though this destination had had the greatest frequency with 12 weekly flights.

Noteworthy is the operation from Kingston rather than the Montego Bay base.

The woes of the airline had markedly increased earlier this year when the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority agreed with the Federal Aviation Administration that Air Jamaica had to observe a 15-month maintenenance rather than an 18-month maintenance schedule. The JCAA permitted the airline to operate 15 aircraft but Air Jamaica has been operating only 12. As the airline was operating 20 aircraft until recently, this suggests a huge maintenance gap between what the airline operated and what it could safely operate.

The airline has horrendous debts of over US$800 million, of which about half is due the government and its agencies. Some of the debt is in the process of being refinanced with guarantees provided by the Jamaica government.

The airline is seeking reducing costs in several ways, such as:

• axeing destinations, including Manchester, Havana, Antigua and Houston
• cutting the fleet, eg one Airbus A340 has been returned to the lessor
• cutting staff, including pilots
• obtaining guarantees from governments such as St Lucia and Barbados to pay for unfilled seats
• reduction in landing fees.

23DEC04 Struggling Air Jamaica will pull out of Anigua again due to losses on the route. The airline currently operates a 150-seat Airbus A320 service four times a week from Montego Bay to St Lucia, Antigua and New York Kennedy, with the return flights the following day after an overnight stop at JFK. The last flight will leave JFK on 09JAN05.

Air Jamaica had restarted service to Antiigua in June 2002.

The Eastern Caribbean will then be served from Montego Bay to JFK on a daily basis with intermediate stops as follows:

• St Lucia, Grenada (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday)
• St Lucia, Barbados (Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday)
• Grenada, Barbados (Friday)

The Jamaica government recently disclosed that Air Jamaica had debts of US$560 million, of which US$236 million was owed to the government, and had lost US$682 million during its decade of privatisation. A team of management consultants had also projected that it would require about US$270 million in capital over the next five years.

It is now expected that the government will today regain sole ownership of the airline as its majority owner, the Gordon "Butch" Stewart-led Air Jamaica Acquisition Group (AJAG), will sell its 75 per cent shareholding back to the goverment. AJAG will also pay the airline (and therefore the government) US$20 million, and the goverment is expected to provide up to US$25 million in new loans to the airline as part of a restructuring plan. Chairman Butch Stewart and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Zacca are to resign with immediate effect and will be replaced by Dr Vin Lawrence and Aubyn Hill.

13NOV04 Air Jamaica is broke, owing its local bankers US$100 million and losing money as usual (it has costs of US$500 million a year but with passenger revenues at only US$440 million). In a bid to slash costs by US$50 million, the airline is to take some unpalatable steps. The oldest of the three Airbus A340s will be returned to ILFC, the lessor, upon the axing of two destinations (Manchester and Havana) and two of the current nine weekly Heathrow flights in February 2005.

The last of the twice-weekly flights from Manchester to Kingston will depart on 05FEB05, the last weekly flight to Havana will depart LHR on 07FEB05. And LHR will only see seven weekly flights after 18FEB05.

The two remaining A340s will be used on the LHR and JFK routes.

07JAN04 Air Jamaica will take over two routes from its subsidiary Air Jamaica Express. From Montego Bay, there will be a daily service except on Wednesdays from 29JAN04 to Grand Cayman (returning via Kingston), and there will be a daily service except on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 30JAN04 to Nassau. All flights will be operated with the 150-seat Airbus A320 and the 187-seat Airbus A321, replacing the 37-seat Dash 8s of Air Jamaica Express.

Both destinations had been dropped in 2002 because of declining passenger loads.

12OCT03 Air Jamaica has announced that it had completed its rationalisation programme which included the replacement of four Airbus A310 aircraft with more fuel efficient planes - one Airbus A320-200 (reported below) and three Airbus A321s - that would result in annual savings of J$1 billion (US$18 million). All are on lease from ILFC.

The airline now has a modern all-Airbus fleet of three widebody A340s and 17 narrowbody A320s and A321s.

26AUG03 Air Jamaica has leased an additional Airbus A320-200 from ILFC, thus bringing the number of this type in the fleet to 11. The aircraft is on a 10 and a half year lease and was delivered last month. It had been initially planned to lease to aircraft in November 2003.

11AUG03 Air Jamaica will launch service to Toronto on 05APR04, one day after the carrier's codeshare agreement with Air Canada is scheduled to end. The airline plans to operate daily service on a Kingston-Montego Bay-Toronto routing using Airbus A320 aircraft. This will represent a return to Canada for the first time in 13 years.

Air Canada still has its schedule of five weekly flights from Toronto into both Kingston and Montego Bay using Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

16JUN03 In an unusual move away from a code-share partner, Air Jamaica next month plans to relocate its operations from the Delta Terminal 2 at New York Kennedy to Terminal 4 to accommodate its growing operation. The move would come roughly at the same time as the rebranding of its first-class service.

The airline, which has served JFK for the past 34 years, has operated out of Terminal 2 since 1998. The carrier currently operates five daily return flights between Jamaica and JFK, and says it needs additional space to accommodate its schedule. Furthermore, T4 operates 24 hours per day and the Delta terminal does not. The terminal move will occur on 15 July.

Before that, however, the airline on 17 June plans to rename its first-class product Top Class and upgrade its meal service. Given that many competitors have downgraded their first-class products, the airline's goal is to distinguish its level of customer service. On its three-class long-haul Airbus A340 flights, the carrier will rename its business class Platinum Class and Economy Lovebird Class. The carrier plans to launch a new television advertisement on US cable stations and in specific markets such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and south Florida.

Like its competitors, Air Jamaica also struggles from weak revenues and traffic. Although low fares have kept up current load factors, overall bookings are still made at the last minute, including leisure traffic. Furthermore, autumn is coming, which historically is a very soft period.

24MAY03 Air Jamaica will axe its twice-weekly service from Montego Bay to Belize after 01JUN03. The route was inaugurated only last November.

02MAR03 Air Jamaica is planning to go to the market for US$35 million in another few months to cover an expected loss of the same amount this year. It is no surprise that Air Jamaica needs more money, having lost US$80 million in the 2002 financial year on a US$450 million turnover, not counting US$6 million in insurance or US$25 million in security. The airline has also seen a 10 per cent drop in UK traffic as a result of the decision by the UK government to impose visa restrictions on Jamaicans

Whilse Air Jamaica has been significantly affected by the fallout of 11 September (it carries 60 per cent of the traffic from the US to Jamaica), it has to be said that the airline has embarked on expansion whilst other carriers have been cutting back. Inevitably, yields have fallen as fares have had to be kept low to fill the aircraft. The bottom line is that revenues are not covering costs, resulting in more big losses.

The Jamaican government has had to support its national carrier since inception, and it is quite possible that more (reluctant) government guarantees will be needed to enable Air Jamica to get the funding it needs this year.

16JAN03 Air Jamaica, unable to obtain Heathrow slots for an additional Thursday service to serve mainly the Havana market, has opted instead to divert its existing Kingston Sunday flight (JM004) to Havana from 06APR03. The schedule will therefore be LHR-HAV-KIN. This will complement the existing Monday service to Havana.

07OCT02 Air Jamaica will double its frequency to twice-daily between Montego Bay and Los Angeles from 11APR03. Flights will be operated with the Airbus A320 with a 12 First/138 Economy configuration. The new daytime flights from Los Angeles will complement the current overnight flights. Schedule:

JM077 MBJ 1435-1825 LAX
JM076 LAX 0730-1515 MBJ

Los Angeles is a growing vacation market with more than 80 percent of all passengers being tourists.

28SEP02 Air Jamaica will inaugurate non-stop service from Montego Bay to Belize City on 21NOV02. Schedules as follows:

JM066 MBJ 1240-1330 BZE
JM067 BZE 1420-1705 MBJ

Flights will be operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays with the Airbus A321.

27JUL02 Air Jamaica will add a second daily service between Montego Bay and Chicago on 12FEB03 using the Airbus A320. The return flight, at 1335 compared with the current 0615, will enable more passengers to get same-day connecting flights from the Far East (especially Japan), Detroit, Vancouver, the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest. Schedule:
JM073 daily MBJ 0925-1230 ORD
JM072 daily ORD 1335-1840 MBJ

06JUL02 Air Jamaica has opted not to return its first A340 to the lessor. Instead, a daily A340 service was launched from Kingston to New York Kennedy on 28JUN02. The original Royal Jamaica First Class and Royal Jamaica Business Class cabins, with 12 and 28 seats respectively, have been renamed Premium First and First. The 254 Economy seating remains unchanged. The previous aircraft on the route had been the Airbus A310 with 18 First class and 200 Economy seats.

The A340 is the only 4-engine aircraft to fly between North America and the Caribbean, and looks an expensive overkill for an airline which is a perpetual money-loser.

Last week, Jamaican pilots Captain Marlene Smith and First Officer Melvina Anderson were at the controls of an Airbus A320 on a flight from New York Kennedy to Antigua, becoming the first all-female flight crew on an Air Jamaica international flight. The airline had launched the 3/weekly New York-Antigua-St Lucia-Montego Bay service on 20JUN02.

28APR02 Air Jamaica has signed a deal to take three new Airbus A321s and one new A320 from leasing giant International Lease Finance Corp. The A321s will be delivered in February, May and June of next year, while the A320 will arrive in November 2003. All four planes are powered by CFMI CFM56 engines and on 10-year leases. The two MD-83s will go, thus making the airline an all-Airbus operator.

06APR02 Air Jamaica will expand Montego Bay-Boston by adding a Wednesday flight on 17APR02 and a Tuesday flight on 25JUN02, thus making it a daily service. All flights are operated with the A320.

The route was launched in February 2001.

07MAR03 Air Jamaica is increasing flights from Montego Bay. From 19MAR, there will be an extra weekly flight to Curaçao (making it four times a week). And from 23MAR, there will be an extra weekly flight to Los Angeles (making it five times a week), with two more weekly flights added from 20JUN (making it a daily service). All flights are operated with the Airbus A320.

13FEB02 Air Jamaica will restore service from Montego Bay and New York Kennedy during this summer to Antigua, abandoned five years previously due to lack of financial support from the Antiguans, and add capacity to its other Eastern Caribbean destinations of Barbados and St Lucia. All flights will be operated with the Airbus A320 configured with 12 First and 138 Economy seats. JM is not selling MBJ-JFK or JFK-MBJ routed via the Eastern Caribbean.

From 20JUN-05SEP, there will be a Montego Bay-St Lucia Hewanorra-Antigua-New York Kennedy flight on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays, departing at 1250 in order to connect with inbound US flights. On the same days, another flight will leave JFK at 0700 on the reverse routeing.

Barbados will, from 20JUN, go from five times a week to daily. The routeing will be Montego Bay-Barbados-New York Kennedy, with another daily flight on the reverse route. The routeing up to 19JUN will be Montego Bay-St Lucia Hewanorra-Barbados-New York Kennedy, so Barbados will gain both a frequency and a capacity increase.

Grenada will get a doubling of flights to four a week from 21JUN with Montego Bay-St Lucia Hewanorra-Grenada flights, with flights leaving JFK on the same days on the reverse routeing.

Amidst all the changes, St Lucia will retain its daily flights from both MBJ and JFK, except that all flights will be shared with Grenada and Antigua instead of Barbados and Grenada.

11JAN02 Air Jamaica plans to restore its operations, curently 8-10 percent down since 11SEP01, to normal from April 2002. The reduced operation, which had peaked at 15 percent just ofter 11SEP, has cost Air Jamaica at least US$25-US$30 million in lost earnings.

Apart from the significant UK expansion already announced, the airline aims to launch flights to Belize in May 2002 and Washington DC in June 2002. The latter flights had been planned to start in mid-November 2001 but had not taken off.

Also planned is a doubling of the airline's Caribbean market which only accounts now for 3-5 per cent of its business.

10JAN02 Air Jamaica has scaled back its planned weekly flights between Jamaica and Heathrow from nine to eight next summer. Manchester flights will be twice-weekly as planned, so there will be 10 weekly UK flights (a doubling of existing frequency). The two A340s will therefore be under-utilised as 12 weekly flights are possible, though 11 flights are a sensible maximum.

18NOV01
Havana The situation on the Heathrow-Havana flights, although strangely not yet on sale, is now clear. One of the three weekly non-stop LHR-Kingston flights will, from 22APR02, be diverted on Mondays to Havana to carry Havana passengers in both directions. Here is the schedule:
JM004 1 LHR 1515-2000 HAV 2050-2130 KIN

Passengers who boarded in Havana to return to LHR will then have to change aircraft at Kingston:
JM003 1 KIN 2320-1430+1 LHR

So, although Air Jamaica will be operating the only scheduled flights from the UK to Havana after the pullout by British Airways after 30MAR02, returning passengers will have a long trip home of 12h 50m from Havana to LHR.

The airline is launching the Havana service after having struck a deal with tour operator Kuoni, which will be taking a large allocation of seats. Other tour operators are being signed up, essential as the route cannot be supported by the small seat-only traffic.

New A340s The two A340-300s (currently operated by Air Canada), which will be put into service on the LHR routes on 23MAR02 and 31MAY02, were ordered from lessor ILFC at the end of September 2001. This looks strange in view of the reduced demand for travel following the events of 11SEP but the airline, which had started negotiating with ILFC in June, decided to take advantage of the greatly reduced leased prices compared with before 11SEP. The current A340 will be returned three years early to ILFC in May 2002

The new A340s will have different cabin configurations compared with the current A340.

• First class will still have 12 seats in a 2-2-2 configuration but the current sleeperettes will be replaced by flat beds, and the seat pitch will rise from 60in to 80in.
• Executive class will have 14 seats (only half the current 28) in a 2-3-2 configuration but the seats will be sleeperettes and seat pitch will rise from 48in to 63in. The airline is hoping to fill these seats more easily than the currently under-occupied business class cabin.
• Economy class will reduce slightly from 254 seats to 252 seats in a 2-4-2 configuration. Seat pitch will remain at 33in.

Curaçao After a 10-year absence, Air Jamaica will return to Curaçao on 22NOV01 with flights from Montego Bay on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturday. The Monday and Thursday flights will be operated with 187-seat A321s and the Saturday flights by 150-seat A320s.

10NOV01 From 31MAY02, Air Jamaica will launch a twice-weekly Kingston-Montego Bay-Manchester-Kingston-Montego Bay on Tuesdays and Fridays. Schedule:
JM005 25 KIN 1740-1820 MBJ 1910-1020+1 MAN
JM006 36 MAN 1220-1605 KIN 1645-1725 MBJ

With these Manchester flights, Air Jamaica will be operating 11 times a week to the UK, the other nine flights being LHR. These 11 flights will be the sensible maximum for two A340s, as an extra weekly flight would provide no contingency at all against delays.

08NOV01 From 23MAR02, Air Jamaica will launch Kingston-Heathrow-Kingston flights on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays using a second A340-300 (the first currently on order), with a Monday flight added from 22APR02. Flights will return the following day. These flights will supplement the existing five weekly LHR flights. The current A340 will be used up to 26MAY02 (LHR-MBJ) and then replaced by the second A340-300 currently on order.

There is, however, no selling yet of the weekly Heathrow-Havana flights from 22APR02 for Kuoni (to replace the axed British Airways flights) nor of the promised Manchester flights.

24SEP01 Air Jamaica lost US$11m shortly after the terrorist attacks in the US in September 2001, and will be one of the most concerned of the Caribbean carriers as it carries over half of US vistors to Jamaica from 13 US gateways. Cutbacks to the downturn in demand include the axeing of the twice-weekly Montego Bay-Phoenix service after 13th October 2001 and flight reductions to Houston, New York, Newark, Los Angeles, Barbados and St Lucia. Further blows, shared by all other carriers, include a big increase of 300 percent of its insurance rates and having to foot higher security bills to meet new standards being demanded by the US Federal Aviation Authority. It is now inconceivable that the airline can slash its losses - US$45m was lost in 2000 - and return to profitability by 2003 as planned.

03SEP01 Air Jamaica is planning to double its Airbus A340 fleet in a deal with leasing company ILFC. Air Jamaica would lease two Airbus A340-300s that were previously operated by Air Canada and would return its sole A340 - leased in June 1999 for six years - to ILFC ahead of time. The airline is looking to take delivery of the A340s in March 2002 and May 2002.

12AUG01 Air Jamaica will axe its four-weekly flights from Montego Bay to Panama City after 26AUG01, blaming the reduction in traffic on the stagnant local economy and the downturn in the US economy. COPA will be left as the only operator on the route. The route had been started on 23JUN00. It had actually been a relaunch as the airline had started Kingston-Panama City shortly after its Montego Bay hub launch in June 1997, but the flights had been axed after only a few months.

25JUN01 On 30JUN01, JM will add a weekly Saturday Montego Bay-Havana flight using a 150-seat Airbus A320, bringing its service to five flights per week on this route. CUBANA code-shares on these flights. These jet flights complement the daily turbo-prop flights (Montego Bay-Kingston Norman Manley-Havana) of subsidiary Air Jamaica Express.

16JUN01 JM will resume service from Montego Bay to Curaçao on 27SEP01 after a 10 year break. Schedules as follows : JM065 MBJ 1125-1405 CUR 1500-1540 MBJ JM064 .Flights will be operated with an Airbus A321 on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

Took delivery in June 2001 of a new Airbus A321 registered 6Y-JMH, replacing the smaller A320 on the Montego Bay-Philadelphia route. The aircraft is leased from GECAS for 10 years.

Air Jamaica will increase service to Barbados and Grenada with two additional weekly flights to both destinations from JFK and Montego Bay between 28JUN01 and 08SEP01. Barbados will therefore receive a daily flight from both JFK and MBJ (up from five per week) whilst Grenada will receive four flights a week from both JFK and MBJ (up from two per week). The Barbados flights will be non-stop four times a week in both directions, with the other three flights shared with St Lucia Hewanorra. This compares with the five current weekly flights which are all shared with St Lucia, resulting in about 600 extra weekly seats to Barbados in both directions. The four weekly Grenada flights will all be shared with St Lucia, which also means that St Lucia will retain its daily service in both directions.

Air Jamaica will launch a daily (except Tuesday) service from its Montego Bay hub to Washington Dulles on 15NOV01 using Boeing MD-83s configured with 12 seats in First and 135 seats in Economy. These flights will complement the existing daily Montego Bay-Baltimore/Washington flights operated by Airbus A310-300s.

Coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the relaunch of its Heathrow service in May 1996, Air Jamaica has upgraded its premium cabins on the Airbus A340-300 which is dedicated to the route. Seat pitch in Royal Jamaica First Class, which has 12 fully reclining seats, has increased from 58 inches to 60 inches. The Royal Jamaica Executive Class has been reduced from 35 to 28 seats, enabling a seat pitch increase from 40 inches to 48 inches. This new seat pitch is more in line with what the airline had in the two Airbus A310-300s which were used on the LHR route until replaced by the A340. The Economy cabin is unchanged with 251 seats.

The airline carried about 120,000 passengers between Jamaica and LHR in 2000.

A daily Houston-Montego Bay service will be launched on 07JUN01 using A320s. Houston will be the airline's 13th US point.

Montego Bay-Boston service was launched on 15FEB01 using an A320, initially six times a week, then daily from 28JUN01.

Air Jamaica axed its Kingston-Barbados-Port of Spain service after 22OCT00 after only four months due to increased competition from BWIA.

The Airbus A340-300 used for the Kingston/Montego Bay-Heathrow service was replaced by a Boeing 767-300ER operated by Citybird from 24OCT00-10NOV00 inclusive whilst the A340 underwent a C check.

In July 2000, the Jamaica government announced that it would increase its stake in JM from 25% to 45%, with the Butch Stewart-led Air Jamaica Acquisition Group reducing its holding from 75% to 55%.

At the same time, Parliament approved a guarantee for a US$45m loan to the airline, which will be used to pay down a US$33m short-term loan that the company acquired last year, as well as meet other operational costs. This US$45m is part of a US$100m longer term Government-guaranteed refinancing package which will be used to tackle well-documented cash flow problems and recapitalise the national carrier. The latest deal comes 18 months after Air Jamaica detailed its three-year business plan, which runs from 1998 to 2000, in which the national airline said it would need US$135 million on top of the US$114 million already laid out by the government. The airline has pushed back the date to profitability to 2003.

In January 2001, US$30m of the US$45m was paid to JM, thus enabling the airline to pay off part of the US$7m owed to the government in travel taxes.

It is estimated that the government has pumped upwards of US$150m into the airline and some of that, in the new arrangement, will likely to be converted to preference shares, giving the government first lien on any future profits from the airline from its ordinary and preference shares.

Description The airline employs 2,400 people (as at March 2001) and carries more than half of all airline passengers to Jamaica. Jamaicans at home account for 35 per cent of the airline's business, 60 per cent is taken up by foreign travel from outside the Caribbean with 3-5 percent in the Caribbean.

Alliances: Delta Air Lines

Pass: Caribbean Hopper Program

2002 ex-UK Schedules

Flights to the Caribbean

Destinations: USA: Atlanta, Baltimore/Washington, Belize (from May 2002), Boston (from 15FEB01), Chicago, Ft Lauderdale, Houston (from 07JUN01), Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix (up to 13OCT01), Washington Dulles (from February 2003). UK: London Heathrow, Manchester (from 31MAY02) Caribbean: Antigua (from 20JUN02-09JAN05), Barbados, Belize City (from 21NOV02-01JUN03), Bonaire (from June 1999), Curaçao (from 22NOV01), Grand Cayman, Grenada (from 03JUN99), Havana, Kingston, Montego Bay, Nassau, Panama City, St. Lucia Hewanorra

Executives
Chairman: Dr Vin Lawrence
CEO: Aubyn Hill

1 x Airbus A340-300 (F12/B28/E254)
2 x Airbus A340-300 (F12/B14/E254)
6 x Airbus A321-200 (F12/E175)
11 x Airbus A320-200 (F12/E138)

Air Jamaica Express

03MAY03 Air Jamaica Express relaunched flights to Nassau last month as Air Jamaica cut back its service to Nassau to just a Sunday flight. Air Jamaica Express flies from Kingston, daily non-stop except Sundays and four times a week one-stop via Montego Bay.

18NOV01 The existing flights from Montego Bay to Santo Domingo will, from 10DEC01, be routed via Port-au-Prince. Flights will be on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays and will continue to be operated by Dash 8s.

Air Jamaica Express will introduce service to three new islands - Grand Cayman, Nassau and Santo Domingo. Flights to Grand Cayman (Mondays and Wednesdays from 30APR01) and Nassau (Fridays and Sundays from 18MAY01) will operate from Kingston Manley and complement Air Jamaica's existing jet services to these islands. (Air Jamaica uses the Airbus A320s and Boeing MD-83s to Grand Cayman from Montego Bay on Tuesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and from Kingston on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and to Nassau from Montego Bay on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.) Service from Montego Bay to Santo Domingo from 30APR01 will be daily except Thursdays and will be the only scheduled service between the countries. All flights will operate with 37-seat Dash-8 aircraft.

The three Dash 8s were recovered in April 2001, having being subleased to collapsed carrier EC Express. These aircraft will help the airline to operate planned, additional flights into Nassau, Grand Cayman and the Dominican Republic as well as new destinations such as Haïti.

Air Jamaica Express will launch its first scheduled international flights -- Montego Bay-Kingston Norman Manley-Havana -- on 09NOV00 (daily except Wednesdays) and to Providenciales on 11NOV00 (five times a week). Flights will be operated with 37-seat Dash 8s. The Havana flights complement the existing 5/weekly Montego Bay-Havana jet flights.

The airline is a subsidiary of Air Jamaica.

Air Jamaica Express earned in 2001 roughly US$10 million a year, five times the revenue generated in its first year of operation in 1996. Easily Jamaica's largest domestic carrier, the airline carried in 2001 about 177,100 passengers (126,100 domestic, 51,000 international) compared with about 132,000 in 1997.

Pass: Caribbean Hopper Program

Destinations: Nassau (from April 2003), Boscobel, Grand Cayman (from 30APR01), Havana, Kingston Norman Manley, Kingston Tinson Pen, Montego Bay, Negril, Port Antonio, Port-au-Prince (from 10DEC01), Providenciales, Santiago de Cuba, Santo Domingo (from 30APR01)

Executives
Chairman: Gordon "Butch" Stewart
President and CEO: Timothy Coon

5 x De Havilland Dash 8 series 100

11MAY03 Air Santo Domingo has launched a double-daily service from its Herrera International (HEX) hub near Santo Domingo to San Juan's Isla Grande (SIG) using an 18-seat Beechcraft 1900. The flights will serve the large Dominican community in Santurce, cruise passengers in San Juan, as well as corporate travellers who prefer the convenience and proximity of Isla Grande to Luis Muñoz Marin.

Rates from Isla Grande vary between $200 and $275, depending on the season. These are the only 56-minute flights to Santo Domingo that serve food.

08NOV02 Air Santo Domingo will inaugurate two routes on 01DEC02, both using Boeing 757s wet-leased from Transmeridien Airlines.

There will be a double-daily service from Santiago (STI), DR to New York's JFK. Incumbents on the route are American (10 times a week), Aeromar (10 times a week) and North American (two times a week). Continental also flies daily from Newark to Santiago.

There will be a daily service from Santo Domingo to New York's JFK on 01DEC02 Schedules as follows: EX701 JFK 0800-1230 SDQ
EX702 SDQ 1410-1640 JFK

Incumbents on the route are American (thrice daily service), Aeromar (double daily) and North American (four times a week). Continental also flies daily from Newark to Santo Domingo.

29OCT02 Air Santo Domingo will inaugurate its first intercontinental operation with a daily dervice from Santo Domingo's Las Americas to Miami using a Boeing 727 wet-leased from Transmeridien Airlines. Incumbents on this route are American (four daily flights), Aeromar (one daily flight) and North American (three weekly flights).

09AUG02 Air Santo Domingo inaugurated on 25JUL02 a daily service from San Juan to Santo Domingo's Las Americas (SDQ). Flights are operated by Pace Airlines. These flights complement the existing thrice daily service (operated by owner SAP) between the airline's Herrera base and San Juan.

06SEP01 Having carried 46,114 passengers during January-August 2001, President Henry Azar said, "We are growing at a rate of 100% over year 2000, our first year of operation of the airline. Look for us to add frequencies in markets we currently serve, new routes and larger aircraft. Air Santo Domingo is emerging as an important player in the Caribbean airline market place."

Domestic Dominican Republic flights from Santo Domingo's Herrera and also to Puerto Rico (launched 20JUL 2000).

Description Air Santo Domingo was a venture of Dominican investors with Spanish airline Air Europa. The Spaniards pulled out when the governmental efforts lagged in eliminating the Category III status imposed by the US FAA that prevented Dominican flag airliners from flying to the US. The company was sold to the Grupo Servicios Aereos Profesionales in December 1999 that registered the airline in the US to get around the ban.

Executives
President: Henry William Azar

Destinations Arroyo Barril, Barahona, El Portillo, Herrera, La Romana, Miami (from 01DEC02), New York Kennedy, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, San Juan (SJU and SIG), Santo Domingo (from 25JUL02)

5 x LET L 410 UVF-E
1 x Beechcraft 1900
1 x Embraer 120

On 17JUL00, an Air Services Ltd (ASL) aircraft crashed on the Essequibo Coast. It was piloted by the owner of the company Yacoob Ally and had four passengers on board. They all escaped unhurt. The Cessna 206 with the registration 8R-GMA was about to take off from the company's Spring Garden airstrip located about one and a half miles from Supenaam when the mishap occurred. According to the reports, the aircraft was racing at full power along the runway when it reached a bridge that is part of the airstrip and bounced on the incline. The Cessna veered slightly from the impact on the bridge and Ally, an experienced pilot, was apparently not in full control when it landed back on the airstrip. He could not stop the plane before running out of runway, reports stated, and the Cessna ended up in the adjacent rice field. The nose gear, wing and the propeller were badly damaged but the pilot and the passengers escaped with just the worst scare of their lives. Personnel from the Civil Aviation Department conducted investigations. The aircraft was dismantled and was lying at the airstrip.

Domestic Guyana flights

Owner: Yacoob Ally

14JUL03 A nine-seat Cessna 402 operated by Air Sunshine crashed yesterday in the water nine miles west of the airport in Treasure Cay, Bahamas, killing a woman and a 3-year-old girl. Eight survivors, including an infant and the pilot, clutched one another for 80 minutes in warm water until two US Coast Guard helicopters used aerial baskets to pluck them from the ocean. The survivors were being treated at Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport.

The pilot, the lone crew member, reported trouble with the right engine at about 1535 before all contact was lost. The plane took off from Fort Lauderdale at 1435. Moments before the crash, the pilot issued a mayday call, which was picked up by another plane in the vicinity and relayed to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Air Sunshine also suffered a Cessna crash in February 1977 in the US Virgin Islands when two people were killed and three injured.

09FEB03 Air Sunshine will on 03MAR03 launch three daily flights on two routes: San Juan-Vieques and St Croix-Vieques. The service is in conjunction with the opening of the Wyndham Martineau Bay Resort.

This follows the launch on 23JAN03 of the Ft Lauderdale-Guantanamo Bay (NBW), Cuba, service on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

On 06FEB96, Alas Nacionales flight ALW301 operated with a Boeing 757-200 (TC-GEN ) for the German travel company Oeger Tours crashed eight minutes after take-off from Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, killing all 176 passengers and 13 crew. The aircraft reportedly had not flown in the two weeks prior to the accident. Alas Nacionales, a Dominican Republic airline, had hurriedly leased the aircraft from Turkish airline Birgenair for the flight to Berlin and Frankfurt with a technical stop in Gander after its own Boeing 767developed mechanical trouble. At the time, all airlines from the Dominican Republic were not allowed by the US government to fly to the US because of sanctions imposed by the FAA Foreign Assessment Program.

The circumstances surrounding the demise of Alas Flight 301 may have been all too typical of the shaky finances and corner-cutting pressures on some charter operations. Alas had been in business limbo since 1993, when it stopped operating following a US ban on all Dominican air carriers because of the island republic's inadequate safety and maintenance standards. It resumed flights in December, using planes rented from a Turkish firm, Birgen Air, which itself operates close to the margins of profit, hiring out its three-plane fleet--a Boeing 737, the fatal 757 and a Boeing 767--to small airlines serving as middlemen dealing with tour-group operators. The doomed flight was originally to have been aboard a Boeing 767, but the 757 was substituted at the last minute--so hurriedly that the airline failed to obtain the necessary landing clearance for Germany.

Description
Operates scheduled domestic and regional charter flights. Carries out wet-lease operations for Aeromar.

Destinations (domestic)
Cancun, Ciudad Victoria, Monterrey, Tampico

22JUN03 American Eagle will launch a daily non-stop service from St Maarten to Santo Domingo on 03JUL03 using the 64-seat Super ATR. The 2-hour flight compares with the 1hr 5m flights of Air Caraïbes which operates a thrice-weekly service using the Embraer ERJ 145 regional jet.

11MAY03 American Eagle axed service between St Thomas and St Croix after last April, having operated a weekday double-daily service and a weekend daily service using 46-seat and 74-seat ATRs. It has been a vital link between St Thomas, which is the capital, and the larger island of St Croix, and has been used by both government officials and businesspeople.

The suspension of the flights follows the decision by the Virgin Islands Port Authority (VIPA) to increase landing and passenger fees at the two airports in the U. Virgin Islands. When the VIPA announced the fee increase, Eagle's reaction was to initiate a review of its flight scheduling into the territory and of its staffing at the two airports. One USVI government official has insisted, however, that the Eagle announcement has more to do with the financial difficulties of financially troubled American Airlines than with the fee hikes in the USVI.

In a further cost-cutting measure, nine of the airline's employees were made redundant at St Croix as at 15 April. Also, as reported elsewhere, Eagle has taken over ground handling for American Airlines at St Thomas and St Croix. This includes the flights from Miami (double-daily to St Thomas, daily to St Croix) and New York Kennedy (daily to St Thomas).

American Eagle will continue to serve both destinations from its San Juan hub (10 daily flights to St Thomas and eight daily flights to St Croix).

Although the other two airlines on the route, Cape Air and Seabourne Airlines, both announced an increase in service, a number of hoteliers is concerned that carriers operating with small (nine and 17-seat) aircraft would be hard pressed to provide adequate service, especially in the winter months.

09MAR03 American Eagle will from 15MAY03 launch a daily San Juan-Nevis service using a 40-seat ATR42. Schedule:

This route will serve the popular Four Seasons Nevis resort and bypass the formerly required stop in St. Kitts.

06NOV02 AMR Corp, the parent of American Airlines, said today that it will spin off regional carrier Executive Airlines, which operates under the name American Eagle, in a move that could bring the struggling company about US$700 million. American Eagle Airlines has signed a letter of intent to sell Executive Air back to Puerto Rican businessman Joaquin Bolivar, who is the chairman and chief executive of the Water Club Hotel and the Excelsior Hotel, both in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Bolivar founded Executive Air Charter in 1979 and owned Puerto Rico's largest chain of travel agencies, Bithorn Travel, from 1990 to 1999. The sale of Executive Air is expected to be completed near the end of the first quarter of 2003.

American Eagle has been forced to sell Executive Airlines to meet scope obligations in the contract between American Airlines and the Allied Pilots Association which limit the amount of flying which can be done on the American AA code. The scope obligations aren't the typical limits of regional jet flying; instead they are linked to the number of American pilots still on furlough.

There is a limit to the number of available seat miles that can be flown under the AA code while American pilots are still on furlough. Eagle and Executive fly under the AA code regardless if the flying is done with a jet or turboprop.

American Eagle already has taken several steps to reduce available seat miles, ie capacity in AA's system, including grounding turboprops and removing seats from other aircraft. No route changes are planned for the 40 destinations in Florida, the Caribbean and Bahamas that Executive serves from its hubs in Miami and San Juan.

The transaction will include a marketing partnership under which Executive will continue to provide feed traffic to American – but using its own designator code (OW), rather than American's – to and from San Juan and the American Airlines hub in Miami. Its operations will use the AmericanConnection service mark, a service mark licensed by American to independent regionals that provide American with feed.

Gary Ellmer, Executive Airline's president, will remain at Executive after the sale.

American Eagle President Peter Bowler said the sale "preserves jobs at both Executive and Eagle by avoiding the necessity of grounding additional aircraft."

This news has, however, gone down badly with the American Eagle pilots who first heard of the deal by reading it in the morning newspaper. They claim that management has failed repeatedly for months to respond to their offers to engage in meaningful discussions over the direction of American Eagle so that the pilots can assist management in the growth and stability of American Eagle. They also claim that it is apparently AMR's plan is to sell off, downsize and outsource the most profitable portion of its operations, American Eagle, in order to sustain its least profitable subsidiary, American Airlines.

The pilots go on to say that in "1997 American Eagle pilots and management reached an agreement that eliminated the possibility of strikes for 16 years. In exchange for this agreement, a merger of the four then-separate American Eagle carriers with a single pilot seniority list was negotiated. The sale of Executive repudiates the basic promise made by American Eagle at the heart of that agreement -- a single carrier, a single contract and a long-term commitment to the development and growth of the American Eagle system. The irony here is that the sale of Executive will cause American Eagle to incur millions of dollars in training costs as Executive pilots exercise their seniority rights to re- position themselves within the American Eagle system."

Executive flies a mix of ATR 42 and 72 turboprops.

09OCT01 American Eagle will launch a three-times daily service from Bonaire to Aruba using ATR 72s. The flights will commence just after the end of the contract to operate wet-lease flights for Air ALM between the ABC islands.

From 02JUN01, American Eagle will launch three non-stop flights a week from its Caribbean hub in San Juan to Bonaire, one of the premier dive destinations in the world and also a popular wind surfing destination. The flights to Bonaire on 64-seat ATR 72 turboprop aircraft will depart San Juan on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and return on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.

On 17MAY01, American Eagle will launch four nonstop flights a week from San Juan to Canouan Island (CIW), located in St Vincent and The Grenadines. Two of these flights will continue onto Barbados and return early the next morning. All flights will operate with 46-seat ATR-42 turboprop aircraft. AA expects that Carenage Bay, a five-star luxury resort on Canouan, should benefit.

From 01APR01, American Eagle will start a daily St Maarten-St Thomas service.

From 01APR01, American Eagle will convert the current one-stop service to Curaçao (via Aruba) to four non-stops a week.

American Eagle launched a daily service between Fort Lauderdale and Freeport with 46-seat ATR-42 turboprop aircraft on 02DEC00. On 06DEC00, American Eagle launched a daily service between Tampa and Nassau with 64-seat Super ATR turboprop aircraft.

From 01OCT00, Eagle extended its daily San Juan-St Vincent flight to St Lucia (SLU) and its daily San Juan-St Thomas flight to Anguilla (AXA). However, the airline was forced to axe its St Vincent flights from 04JAN01 by the US FAA on safety grounds. American Eagle, which introduced its daily service into St Vincent in November 1997, was responsible for moving up to 50 percent of passengers into the ET Joshua airport.

From 30OCT00, the daily San Juan-Beef Island-St Maarten flight (started 06SEP00) will extend to St Kitts (SKB). All the new flights will operate with 46-seat ATR-42 turboprops.

From 01NOV00, Eagle will launch a daily Santo Domingo (SDQ)-Mayaguez (MAZ) service using the airline's largest aircraft, the 64-seat Super ATR. This service should benefit the business community and students who fly often to the Dominican Republic.

From 01NOV00, Eagle will launch a daily (except Sunday) San Juan-St Maarten-Santo Domingo flight using a 46-seat ATR 42.

From 02NOV00, Eagle will launch a daily San Juan-St Kitts-St Thomas flight using a 46-seat ATR 42.

Operated by subsidiary Executive Airlines, American Eagle from San Juan has 93 daily flights to 22 Caribbean destinations, and is an affiliate of American Airlines.

Flights to the Caribbean

Description Biggest regional airline which carried 1.9 million passengers in 2002 and more than 1.5 million pounds of cargo in 2001. It employs 1,525 people in the Caribbean (October 2002) including 1,200 at San Juan. Flights are operated by Executive Airlines, the Puerto Rico-based company which owns the rights to operate American Eagle's Caribbean flights. The airline has been operating from San Juan's Luis Muñoz Marin Airport since 1991 and has been expanding its route network since 1989. Eighty daily flights depart from Puerto Rico to Eastern Caribbean islands with a total of 174 daily departures throughout the region during the 2002/03 season.

Contribution to the Puerto Rico economy includes an annual payroll of $35 million, local purchases of fuel and parts of $24 million a year and the maintenance base at Luis Muñoz.

Executive began scheduled air service in the Caribbean in 1985, taking over routes from Prinnair after that regional airline went out of business. In September 1986, Executive was awarded an American Eagle franchise service agreement, and the regional carrier began co-ordinating its flights to enable its passengers to connect with American Airlines flights into and out of San Juan. In December 1989, AMR Eagle Inc. purchased the stock of Executive Airlines. Today, Executive flies as American Eagle in Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean, but the airline manages its own operation, closely co-ordinating scheduling and other functions with American Eagle and American Airlines.

Destinations: San Juan to Anguilla, Antigua, Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire (from 02JUN01), Canouan Island (from 17MAY01), Dominica Melville Hall, Fort de France, Grenada (from 06SEP00, second daily from 03NOV00), Point-à-Pitre, La Romana, Mayaguez, Nevis (from 15MAY03), Ponce, Port of Spain, Puerto Plata, Punta Cana, St Croix, St Kitts, St Lucia George F L Charles, St Maarten, St Thomas, Santiago, Santo Domingo, Tortola Beef Island.

St Maarten to Santo Domingo (from 03JUL03).

Miami to Freeport, Governors Harbour (up to 07JAN01), Marsh Harbour and Nassau.

Tampa to Nassau (from 06DEC00).

Caribbean Explorer: American Eagle offers Caribbean Explorer fares from San Juan

President: Gary Ellmer

22 x ATR-72
13 x ATR-42

Description
Operates regular flights between Santo Domingo and Miami using a leased 737-400 as required

25NOV03 Burdened by debts it cannot pay, Avia Air has ceased trading. Its creditors have seized all assets.

08DEC01 Charter airline Avia started scheduled flights from Aruba to Curaçao on 22NOV01 using EMB110s. There are four daily flights and, from 02DEC01, there was an additional flight on Thursdays and Sundays.

Destinations Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Las Piedras

Executives
President: Efi Tromp

2 x Embraer EMB110P1 Bandeirante
1 x Cessna 402B

03DEC05 The woes of Bahamasair increased when earlier this week several of the airline's aircraft were impounded in Miami due to the late payment of a bond to US Customs.

Although the airline has been cutting costs and expanding its international business such as adding Santo Domingo to its route network, it is in serious trouble. Since the mid-1990s, the perpetual lossmaking carrier has lost $200 million, has huge debts and negative net worth. In the current 2005/06 financial year, the Bahamas government will have to support its national airline with $17 million. There is no realistic prospect of achieving the government's objectives of profitability and privatisation, especially given high fuel prices and competition from low-cost carriers JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines.

03NOV03 Bahamasair has taken delivery of the first of two 50-seat, 1992-model Dash-8 aircraft, at a cost in excess of $7 million. The second is due later this month. Both aircraft were purchased from a Canadian company and will increase the Bahamasair fleet to nine aircraft, including five 1990-model Dash-8 planes and two Boeing 737 jets. While the newly acquired Dash-8s are similar in configuration to the other five, they are said to be more efficient for the short hauls between the islands.

The airline is seeking to use these aircraft to:

• improve the reliability and on-time performance at Bahamasair in order to regain customer confidence
• reduce the level of financial demands of the Bahamian taxpayers by upgrading and modernizing Bahamasair
• expand into new markets, and increase its flight frequency to the high demand markets like Freeport, Exuma and Miami

01JUL03 Bahamasair's 30 years of operations can only be mutely celebrated as it announced that the national flag carrier will cease operations to all four airports of Andros, the largest island of The Bahamas chain, and open them to private air services. The airports are San Andros, Andros Town, Mangrove Cay and South Andros. Other island destinations expected to be outsourced by Bahamasair include North Eleuthera; Arthur's Town, Cat Island; and Treasure Cay, Abaco.

The airline is well aware that it has an obligation to ensure that whoever flies the routes that has its name attached to it must meet insurance liability tests, maintenance and safety tests.

Bahamasair has been pushed into this action by government pressure to stop the red ink on its accounts. The carrier has always lost money, totalling $338 million since day one. Bahamasair was started with just $9 million and the government has had to inject a total of $247 million to keep it running.

Some of the problems which have bedevilled Bahamasair are:

• unreliable aircraft
• too many different types of aircraft, leading to more engineers and pilots than is desirable
• high utilisation of aircraft
• salt-laden sea breezes that cause rust
• costly C-checks

03MAY03 Cash-strapped Bahamasair lost $86 million over the last three years. The reasons included:

• Salaries of staff and consultants
• High maintenance requirements because of the ageing aircraft fleet
• Leases of foreign-owned and operated aircraft
• Hushkits to reduce jet engine noise
• US Internal Revenue Service and Immigration and Naturalisation Service interest and penalty costs
• Increased insurance premiums after the 11 September 11 terrorist attacks

08DEC02 The board of directors is seeking annual staff savings of $4.5m in an effort to stem the red ink of this perpetually loss-making airline. The staff count of 716 is planned to be reduced to 564, which should save $3.5m. The other $1m is to be achieved by bringing management and pilots' salaries in line with the current industry standard.

01NOV02 Bahamasair today resumed its Freeport-Miami service with double-daily flights operated with the Dash-8. Incumbents on the route are American Eagle and Continental (operated by Gulfstream).

12OCT02 In collaboration with Canadian tour operator Havana Flying Club, Bahamasair will provide regular charter service from Nassau to Havana from 17OCT02. Flights will operate on Mondays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays using a dedicated 120-seat Boeing 737-200. Norway-based Scand-America Tours also is a partner in the deal.

Havana Flying Club is selling seats from Miami, Ft Lauderdale and Orlando, with flights connecting at Nassau. The operator is not imposing any early booking or minimum stay requirements and offers travel packages, including accommodation and tours, for both The Bahamas and Cuba.

Key to the arrangement is the use of a non-Cuban carrier as there is no prerequisite for a licence to book or board flights in Florida or Nassau. There are no applications to make or fees to pay. As Bahamasair is a non-Cuban carrier, licensed travellers can fly without concerns that they might be violating US law. US citizens, with few exceptions, are prohibited by law from spending money in Cuba (though not, theoretically, from traveling there). Nevertheless, tens of thousands visit Cuba each year, travelling via Mexico, Canada or other third-country gateways. By connecting through The Bahamas, where passengers will clear customs, the new charter flights stay within the rules. "We have bilateral rights with the United States and bilateral rights to Cuba through The Bahamian government, which allow for these flights," Havana Flying Club said. Another airline, Cubana, also flies between Havana and Miami, but US citizens are not allowed aboard because the planes are Cuban-owned.

In June 2000, Bahamasair signed a 10-year, US$15.4m deal with Sabre for the provision of systems for reservations, check-in, reward loyalty scheme management and aircraft utilisation.

Description
Formed in 1973, Bahamasair, the national carrier of The Bahamas, is wholly owned by the Bahamian government and carries over 1.5 million passengers a year. Staffing was 716 people as at December 2002.

Flights to the Caribbean

Executives
Managing Director: Paul Major

2 x Boeing 737-200
7 x de Havilland DASH-8 series 300

19AUG03 After a delay of eight months, BonairExel launched yesterday from Bonaire seven daily flights to Curaçao and three daily flights to Aruba. Some of the flights connect with those of KLM from Amsterdam.

The airline wishes to extend the Bonaire-Curaçao service to Aruba twice a day, but is prevented from doing so by the government which is protecting Antillean aviation companies, specifically Dutch Caribbean and WINNAIR.

Description BonairExel is the operating name of Dutch Eagle Express, a carrier which is a joint venture between KLM (through its alliance partner Air Exel which set up the airline and provided the fleet) and the island of Bonaire, the only shareholder of BonairExel.

BonairExel's flights carry mainly local traffic and also connect with KLM's international flights to other islands in the area. Passengers with BonairExel are eligible for KLM's Flying Dutchman programme.

The airline employs about 40 staff, of which the Cabin Crew in particular and most of the administration staff are born in the Dutch Antilles.

Executives
Managing Director: Raymundo Saleh

2 x ATR 42
2 x Embraer 145

16OCT05 The Trinidad & Tobago government announced two days ago that a new board of directors has been appointed by Cabinet to restructure BWIA and ensure a smooth transition into a new company. The new board is comprised of businessman Arthur Lok Jack (who is the chairman), economist and chief executive officer of Guardian General, Dr Terrence Farrell, attorney and bpTT chairman Robert Riley, engineer and executive chairman of Neal and Massy Gervais Warner and accountant and retired senior partner at PriceWaterhouse Cooper Limited, William Lucie-Smith.

The government had announced at the end of September that it intended to deal the problems of its beleaguered national airline by creating a totally new company, injecting a staggering US$250m and bringing on board prominent businessman Arthur Lok Jack to lead the charge in the transition process. The intention was to create a new airline designed ab initio as a regional carrier which would also be open in due course to participation from regional governments and the regional private sector.

The plans are:

• Recapitalisation of approximately US$250 million to ensure this new entity could manage its operations. The new entity would continue to be majority owned by the Government with a plan for further divestment to the private sector.
• A significant change in the management of the company and improvement of corporate governance
• To ensure that the new entity is not put to a disadvantage to charter flights.
• A restoration of maintenance capability in the entity.
• Fundamental changes in the work rules and culture of the airline.

Details of the plan have not been revealed. It is unknown, for instance, what route network it would operate or what aircraft it would have in its fleet.

15APR05 Under instruction from the Trinidad government, BWIA has announced the cancellation of service from its Port of Spain base to San José (after 18APR05), Santo Domingo (after 16APR05), Havana (after 30APR05) and Curaçao (after 17APR05). The first three are political routes which are government-subsidised, and Curaçao is only a weekly service.

Meanwhile, there is uncertainty about the twice-weekly flights to Manchester, of which one continues to Prestwick and the other to Belfast. It had seemed as if all three destinations would be axed as well, but they are on sale. However, as there is an eight-week period up to 18 June when no seats are on sale for any of these three destinations, one does wonder whether the airline can be trusted to operate a service.

In the meantime, the airline is surviving due to a recent US$18.8 million loan to BWIA by the government, which has appointed a six-man task force to review the consequences of one of these options:

• closing the 65-year-old airline
• establishing a new state airline
• keeping BWIA but with a new structure.

The government bailout follows several made in recent years. These are:

• November 18, 2001 Cash support of US$1.4 million in the days following 9/11
• January, 2003 US$13.5 million state loan after BWIA met Government demands to reduce its operating cost
• May, 2003 Cabinet gave BWIA a letter of comfort worth TT$32 million out of a TT$116.8 million loan to clear its debt with International Leasing Finance Corporation after two of its airplanes were seized
• June 30, 2003 Cabinet released $30 million out of the $TT$116.8 million loan for operational expenses, while it kept $55 million to ensure no further aircraft were seized.
• July, 2004 Government spent US$40 million to purchase additional BWIA shares which private investors chose not to buy during a rights issue which resulted in the State regaining majority control of the airline.

07NOV04 BWIA will launch from its Port of Spain base a weekly service to Glasgow on 15JAN05 and a weekly service to Belfast on 16JAN05. Both new flights will be an extension of the current twice-weekly Port of Spain-Barbados-Manchester service with the return flights being routed via Barbados the next day.

Both flights are scheduled to operate with the Airbus A340-300 aircraft in a two-class configuration, with introductory fares from Glasgow and Belfast starting at £299 in Economy and £999 in Business/First.

The Glasgow flights will use Glasgow Prestwick International Airport (PIK) which, although 32 miles by road from Glasgow city centre, has a rail link to the city.

The Belfast flights will use Belfast International Airport (BFS).

The airline also has a daily Heathrow flight

20JUN04 BWIA has this week announced a Rights issue of 27 shares at TT$0.20 for each common current share. This will raise TT$254,523,822 (US$40,594,516) which the airline has said it urgently requires to "reduce some critical liabilities and to stabilise the company". Opening of Rights Issue is 28 June, 2004 and the Close of Rights Issue is 16 July, 2004. The airline has 47,133,856 paid up shares, and the Rights issue will increase the share capital to 1,319,747,968.

The Trinidad & Tobago government has guaranteed the Rights issue and will become the majority shareholder again if existing investors fail to take up the offer.

This comes after an announcement only two months ago whereby the Trinidad & Tobago government had agreed to convert US$30 million of the airline's debt to equity and to inject US$10 million directly into the company.

19JUN04 BWIA will today add a second weekly Port of Spain-Barbados-Manchester flight using the Airbus A340-300. The return flights will be on the following day (Sunday).

The existing Port of Spain-Barbados-Manchester flights operate on Thursdays.

As BW operates a daily service into LHR, this will be the airline's ninth weekly UK flight. This still means that the airline's two Airbus A340s are underutilised, although the A340 will replace the Boeing 737-800 this summer on the Monday Port of Spain-Toronto flights (returning on Tuesdays) from 05JUL04-13SEP04.

13FEB04 BWIA will today launch the only non-stop service from its Port of Spain base to Heathrow using the Airbus A340-300. The airline already operates a daily Heathrow flight.

Flights depart on Fridays at 2320, arriving Heathrow at 1200 the next day. The return flights from Heathrow depart on Saturdays at 1545, arriving Port of Spain at 2045.

The airline has secured Heathrow slots for this winter only, but plans to maintain the service during next summer subject to obtaining the necessary slots.

This new service makes it nine weekly UK flights as Manchester is served weekly.

The airline's second Airbus A340, 9Y-JIL, was operated by Virgin Atlantic Airways as G-VKY. This aircraft still has 255 seats in its original 40/28/187 Upper/Premium/Economy configuration. It was first pressed into service on 02FEB04 and will be reconfigured in due course. There are no fares for the Premium cabin seats, so some lucky Economy passengers find themselves upgraded to seats with 38" seat pitch compared with 31" seat pitch in Economy. The Economy seats in the airline's first Airbus A340 have 34" seat pitch.

20JAN04 BWIA will resume non-stop flights from St Lucia Hewanorra to Heathrow on 17FEB04, following the arrival of its second Airbus A340-300. Flights will be on Tuesdays and Fridays, the routing being Port of Spain-St Lucia-Heathrow and the reverse on the return. Currently, the airline flies non-stop from Port of Spain to Heathrow on these days and returns via St Lucia. This means that passengers who board at St Lucia must return home via Port of Spain, a journey of 12h 40m instead of 8h 25m for direct flights.

BWIA has operated to St Lucia from the UK for over 20 years.

The other scheduled players on the London-St Lucia route this winter are Virgin Atlantic Airways (three dedicated flights a week from Gatwick using the Boeing 747-400) and British Airways (two flights a weeks shared with Antigua using the Boeing 777-200ER).

16JAN04 BWIA has signed an agreement for the lease of a second Airbus A340-300. The aircraft will be added to BWIA's fleet in mid-February 2004 and will be deployed on the carrier's routes between Port of Spain and the UK, namely Heathrow and Manchester. The new aircraft is two-class, with a capacity of 40 in Business and 215 in Economy. Although BWIA offers eight weekly trans-Atlantic flights, its sole Airbus A340 can provide at most six, thus forcing the carrier to lease aircraft for at least two weekly flights, including the Manchester flights which are currently operated with an Airbus A310. The acquisition of the new aircraft will enable BWIA to return to a full in-house operation on these routes.

In view of BWIA's dire financial position, it is reasonable to assume that the lessor would not have signed the deal unless the Trinidad government had guaranteed that all lease payments would be made.

A review is being carried out of possible new destinations for the deployment of the extra capacity. The transatlantic schedule is currently a daily operation from Port of Spain to Heathrow (two weekly flights are nonstop and the others are via Barbados three times a week and Antigua two times a week, with two weekly return flights via St Lucia) and weekly to Manchester via Barbados.

04NOV03 BWIA plans to launch a twice-weekly service from Port of Spain to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, on 25NOV03. Flights will be on Tuesdays and Saturdays using the Boeing 737-800.

This will be the third and last political route that the airline will operate at the government's request. Flights have already been launched to San José, Costa Rica, and Havana.

27JUL03 Earlier this week, BWIA belatedly released its annual accounts for the year ended 31DEC02. It makes for grim reading, as the airline suffered losses after taxation and extraordinary items of US$34.2 million last year and has current liabilities which far exceed its current assets by US$49.8 million at 31 December, 2002.

BWIA's current debt burden is probably in excess of US$110 million.

Despite being in receipt of US$9.8 million in loans from the Trinidad & Tobago government in the past two months, many of BWIA's 471 employees who were retrenched last January are still awaiting the payment of their severance benefits.

There is no prospect of alleviation from the crushing losses and debts. BWIA has already suffered from having two of its aircraft seized this year, has costs which are still too high and faces competition from the charter carriers this summer from New York and Toronto and from carriers which are adding capacity this winter, such as American Airlines (from Miami), British Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways (both from Gatwick).

21JUL03 BWIA plans to add a second weekly service on its Manchester-Barbados-Port of Spain route. From 26OCT03, there will be a Sunday flight in addition to the current Friday flight. Furthermore, from that date, all flights will be operated with the Airbus A340-300. Currently, the airline wet-leases a TriStar for this route.

As BW also offers a daily A340 service from Heathrow to Port of Spain, but has just one A340, there will be the continuing need to lease a second A340 and have it operate an extra weekly return flight.

29JUN03 The Trinidad & Tobago cabinet has agreed to a request by BWIA to provide US$4.8 million to meet its operating costs. The government had pledged US$18.5 million subject to cost reductions, and has already been forced to provide US$5m following the seizure of two aircraft. BWIA has not yet met its cost reduction targets, but has now obtained a substantion proportion of the funds.

However, there has been agreement with the Aviation Communications and Allied Workers Union which represents the cabin crew to reduce the stay of the crew at Heathrow from two nights to one night. This will save £1,000 for the 10 cabin crew on each flight.

25JUN03 BWIA launched its inaugural service from Port of Spain to Havana, the Boeing 737-800 touching down at José Martí International late on Wednesday night. Flights will be on Wednesdays and Saturdays and non-stop in both directions. Approximately 23 companies made their way to the communist island in the hopes of forging strong business ties with their Cuban counterparts as part of the five-day trade mission organised by the Trinidad & Tobago Manufacturers' Association in collaboration with Tidco and Republic Bank.

31MAY03 Bankrupt BWIA, struggling under the weight of US$100 million of debt, has been rescued by the Trinid