Air Jamaica Express to be Reggae Bird Air?

[gravyflex]

Speculation is rife that Gordon 'Butch' Stewart will turn Air Jamaica Express, the former associate airline of the national carrier Air Jamaica, into a Caribbean low cost carrier.

According to its website, Air Jamaica Express has destinations within Jamaica, Cuba, Turks & Caicos, Grand Cayman, Nassau and the Dominican Republic.

The low cost carrier (LCC) business model has become the airline industry's answer to operating in a high cost environment that caters to budget conscience travellers.

And Air Jamaica Express could be just the ticket to giving travellers to the Caribbean and from within the Caribbean the opportunity to stretch their travel dollars.

The Financial Gleaner understands that John Lewis, the chief operating officer at Air Jamaica has been hired as chief executive officer of Air Jamaica Express.

Sources tell the Financial Gleaner that there are plans afoot to rename Air Jamaica Express and equip the carrier with a new fleet of second-hand 737 planes taken over from North American airline, US Air.

And that is a critical point because 737s are the favourite planes for LCCs. According to plane manufacturer, Boeing's website, "The Boeing 737 makes up more than 90 per cent of the combined fleets of the low-fare carriers around the world."

The website goes on to say, "737s use less fuel, and have lower engine maintenance costs and lower navigation and landing fees. The 737 maintenance costs are up to 35 per cent lower than other aircraft.
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I have been hearing the rumors that Air Jamaica Express will be turned into a LLC for the last week or so. I can't help but laugh and I have been laughing a lot. If this is the case then it would seem to me to be the biggest case of Union Busting there ever was.

Seriously, has it occurred to anyone else that the AJAG pulled out of Air Jamaica right after the ground staff became unionized. I'm convinced that this was there plan all along.

It seems like the workers might have won the battle but lost the war. With Air Jamaica Express as a LCC it would be a lot easier for the GOJ to close Air Jamaica down. For all those who are convinced that the GOJ will never allow this to happen I would like to know how will the government afford to keep Air Jamaica afloat.

It is clear that we cannot afford Air Jamaica and I am disgusted that my taxes are being used to keep afloat a sinking ship and at the same time I don't have good roads to drive on. Shows you what out priorities are. Don't get me wrong I love Air Jamaica just as much as the next man but why keep it if we can't afford it. Only a few people benefiting anyways and they already rich.

The question I have why is the going on at Air Jamaica being kept on the hush? It appears to me that the GOJ is in on the sordid deal. I can tell you one thing if and when the GOJ decides to inject capital into Air Jamaica Express LCC, If there was any possibility that I would vote for them...

[Tamara]

No...but you do bring up a good point. Timing is every thing. Then Aubyn Hill - suddenly resignsfrom NCB, no major reason given, then magically and coincidentally reappears at Air-Jah-Mek-Yah! Kinda makes you wonder for real...what these "entreprenuers" have up their sleeves...?

[Zard]

it is very fishy indeed

i don'y think we should give up on Air Jamaica though cuz our airline is tied in with so many other things especially tourism
the airline business worldwide is loosing cash like crazy and airline companies are literally droppin like flies.
we just have to pray that they (GOJ) stuck up the holes that can be sealed and try their best to attend to the unsealable ones...plus focus and gaining revenue from other things that the airline infuences
the labour disputes arn't helping though....

bwoy it look sticky indeed

[nigelt]

it is very fishy indeed

i don'y think we should give up on Air Jamaica though cuz our airline is tied in with so many other things especially tourism
the airline business worldwide is loosing cash like crazy and airline companies are literally droppin like flies.
we just have to pray that they (GOJ) stuck up the holes that can be sealed and try their best to attend to the unsealable ones...plus focus and gaining revenue from other things that the airline infuences
the labour disputes arn't helping though....

bwoy it look sticky indeed

The Government of Jamaica should have been paying more attention when Butch and his cronies were raping Air Jamaica by giving sweetheart deals to his hotels and his paramours, which is primarily the reason that Air J is in the state it's in now. How can the government have a substantial stake in a company and not look at the books??? Especially when Vin Lawrence, the current CEO, was ON THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. Was it incompetence or collusion on the part of the government? Either way, they're just as culpable as Butch and the AJAG are for the current state of the airline.

[rhys]

The airline business aint easy. If you think that 'sweetheart deals' are the prime reason AirJ is in this situation then your observations of the industry have been cursory at best.

For a moment i thought that Reggae Bird Air was seriously being contemplated as the actual name......reminds me of Super Supreme TV....

[gravyflex]

The airline business aint easy. If you think that 'sweetheart deals' are the prime reason AirJ is in this situation then your observations of the industry have been cursory at best.

Your post suggest that the news you get about Air Jamaica comes from the newspapers. I would let you know that a lot of things are not as well known as they should be. Nigelt is quite correct in his observations. The whole idea that you could grow out of debt was flawed from the get go. It is easy to see who has benefited from Air Jamaica over the 10 years it has been privatized.

[pradere]

I personally think Air Jamaica should have gone with the no frills model long ago on it's short haul routes. (Caribbean & East Coast USA)
Blaming 9/11 is wearing thin now... If it cost US$50 to get to Miami or Havana how many more people would go? many more!!
I have flown from London - Geneva last year for £26 on Easyjet. No food, you buy your snacks or bring your own, no entertainment, but the flight was only 1.5hours.
Does you expect food and entertainment when you get the bus? so why not flights? (Airline food is rubbish anyway) & for £26!! and the airline is in profit!

The only fly in the ointment is the fact that AA Delta etc would not be happy keeping their fares on these routes low indefinitely and as they have much better financial backing would possibly see off any threat by being able to run routes at a loss for longer than AJ

I will be saddened if AJ goes to the wall, just wish I had a rich dad like Stelios to give me a loan. I'd be down there setting up Jamaican Airlines no-frills service to Miami tommorrow.

[rhys]

I do not get most of my info re air j from the news papers. Further, i will again state that 'sweetheart deals' were not the bain of air j.

...idea that you could grow out of debt was flawed...

You hit (most of) the nail on the head with that statement. I dont see where nigelt said anything along those lines.

[nigelt]

I do not get most of my info re air j from the news papers. Further, i will again state that 'sweetheart deals' were not the bain of air j. You hit (most of) the nail on the head with that statement. I dont see where nigelt said anything along those lines.

I agree with you Rhys, when you say that the airline business is not an easy one. However, Sept. 11 and the rise in fuel prices, while playing their part, were not the primary reasons for the decline of Air J.

When a very large portion of your passengers purchase travel packages (airfare, hotel, and transportation) in which the fares remitted to Air J per person are so deeply discounted from even the special fares which are published that it is kept secret from all but a few high ranking executives, that is a recipe for disaster. The majority of those passengers stay at (surprise, surprise) Sandals or Beaches. This sweetheart deal was in place before other carriers expanded their service to Jamaica, and waaay before September 11. The cumulative effect doomed the airline.

Other Butch owned companies have been "nyammin food" as well. Many of the office supplies and office equipment supply and maintenance contracts were given to companies affiliated with Butch, even when comparable services and equipment could have been obtained elsewhere much more cheaply.

I won't even start about the advertising contract that Butch ordered given to the company run by the mother of some of his children.

My point is that the effects of this type of nepotism and utter mismanagement far far outweighed the other factors mentioned at the beginning of the post and was ultimately "the bane of Air J".

[nigelt]

That whole "grow your way out of debt" thing was just a ploy to expand on routes that would be beneficial to Butch's hotels. I can't believe the government swallowed it hook, line and sinker. But then again............