After just about 40 years, the Air Jamaica era is drawing to an end. Understandably for a variety of reasons, there is kicking, screaming and scheming by many of those closely tied to Air Jamaica and also by many Jamaicans all around the world. That a small developing country like Jamaica has had its own major airline and been able to maintain Jamaican ownership for so many years are indeed grand achievements. There has been so much sentiment and pride attached to Air Jamaica over the years. Unfortunately given the current economic disaster facing Jamaica, maintaining the airline is no longer an option as mandated by the IMF. Everyone knows that sentiment alone cannot run any airline.
Digging deeper into Air Jamaica’s survival over the years, it is clear that running the airline over the years has been associated with tremendous costs (read debt) to the country. Can you imagine even a non-profit organization surviving “in the red” for such a long time? One can just visualize how many educational institutions and health care facilities could have been built with the more than US $1billion invested in Air Jamaica to date. We will never know but choices have been made in the past and now the choice to end the tenure of Air Jamaica has been made. Giving credit where it is due, there is no doubt that Air Jamaica has contributed tremendously to the growth of Jamaica’s tourism industry and the exposure of many Jamaicans to the outside world, so we are understandably very sad to see it fly into history.
While we are extremely grateful for this, the 21st century global world in which we now live is very different from the world of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the formative years of Air Jamaica. There are now other less costly ways than owning an airline to ensure that Jamaica gets enough airlift to support the tourism industry, also to facilitate the movement of Jamaicans and foreigners in and out of Jamaica.
Jamaican ownership just because of pride is not enough. Don’t forget that in the recent past, a Butch Stewart-led team took over Air Jamaica, operated it with a mixed outcome for a number years and then dropped it “like a hot potato” due to lack of profitability. The JALPA (Jamaica Airline Pilot Association) is now pleading for the opportunity to run the airline but this appears to be an effort made too late. There are still many questions and no clear answers supporting JALPA’s financial resource capacity.
Let’s put aside the traditional petty competition between Jamaica and Trinidad. Why not try teamwork instead? If Caribbean Airlines is willing to take over Air Jamaica, maybe it is time to give it a chance and hope for the best. The airline business is markedly tough due to high capital costs and smaller airlines tend to feel that impact more than larger operations. Maybe this collaboration will provide Caribbean Airlines with the critical mass it needs to achieve success. One of the beneficial features related to the Caribbean Airlines takeover is that it will probably eradicate the top-heavy management that has weighed down Air Jamaica for so many years. It is also well known that Trinidad has more resources than Jamaica at this time, likely making it able to make the major capital investment required to increase services and fill the hole left by Air Jamaica.
Bye Bye Air Jamaica, we will miss your name and beautiful colors. We hope that Caribbean Airlines will keep the impeccably smooth landings, the Jamaican breakfast, lunch and snacks, the free champagne, courteous, professional cabin crew and ground staff, and oh yes, also Island Stylee!!