Jamaicans abroad upset at sale of Air J

**RichD** · 02-17-2010, 04:06 PM

Re: Diaspora and Air J, urban farms, students, Haiti

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
As for the rest as I said before they are not assets we have an open skies agreement anyone could setup shop and fly to Jamaica with the correct Civil Aviation credentials and access to the slots.
</div></div>

Im talking abotu landing slots at the worlds busiest airports...similar to the ones they sold to virgin

**Tuff Gong** · 02-17-2010, 04:09 PM

Re: Diaspora and Air J, urban farms, students, Haiti

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
As for the rest as I said before they are not assets we have an open skies agreement anyone could setup shop and fly to Jamaica with the correct Civil Aviation credentials and access to the slots.
</div></div>

Im talking abotu landing slots at the worlds busiest airports...similar to the ones they sold to virgin </div></div>

Well see how easily and cheaply those were given away .....why worry about the rest when you are drowning?

**RichD** · 02-17-2010, 04:12 PM

Re: Diaspora and Air J, urban farms, students, Haiti

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Well see how easily and cheaply those were given away .....why worry about the rest when you are drowning? </div></div> and then weep and wail down the road about what could have been.

**Tuff Gong** · 02-17-2010, 04:17 PM

Re: Diaspora and Air J, urban farms, students, Haiti

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Tuff Gong</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

Well see how easily and cheaply those were given away .....why worry about the rest when you are drowning? </div></div> and then weep and wail down the road about what could have been. </div></div>

Put it in context though at the time I said it was unconscionable, it was and it still is. When you do crazy stuff like that you are down the slippery slope. So the sale to of Slots to Virgin is not the same as given away of slots to CAL.

One was an underhanded stripping of the assets of <span style="font-family: 'Arial Black'">Air Jamaica</span> and the other is a distressed sale where you call in the Auctioneers to get rid of the possessions of the dead.

**RichD** · 02-17-2010, 04:26 PM

Re: Diaspora and Air J, urban farms, students, Haiti

ok..so next point

Under a ESOP would the gov still have to pay the estimated US$300 Million in redundency?

**Tuff Gong** · 02-17-2010, 04:29 PM

Re: Diaspora and Air J, urban farms, students, Haiti

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body">ok..so next point

Under a ESOP would the gov still have to pay the estimated US$300 Million in redundency? </div></div>

Yes because they don't own the Airline anymore and they are making workers of Air Jamaica redundant. Besides Captain Capelton said the under one of the varying scenarios severance was counted as the part of the money they wish to pony up.

**evanovitch** · 02-17-2010, 07:38 PM

The Air Jamaica screw-up

The Air Jamaica screw-up

Howard Chin

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

'THERE'S been a lot of talk recently about Air Jamaica being sold to the Trinidadians, who, it is said, are really reluctant to take this on, having been hit like everyone else by the global recession. If the Trinidadian government actually buys Air Jamaica, it looks like they would be minus a lot of votes at the next elections.

A lot of Jamaicans are as mad as hell about the way the sale is being run and about the way the Jamaican government is acting. Prime Minister Bruce Golding said a few days ago that the government might have to sell the airline minus the mountain of debt. After all this, the government has been from last year desperately trying to unload the only two aircraft that Air Jamaica actually owns, at a time when a whole pile of airlines are downsizing or going out of business, and selling a ton load of aeroplanes or putting them into storage in the desert. The government must be nuts! No way are they going to get their asking price!

1/1

Then to top it off, there's the hundreds of millions of US dollars the government has to cough up to pay the redundancy payments to the then ex-workers.

Basically, we the Jamaican public would have to foot the debt and the redundancy payment, then end up with Caribbean Airlines flying to places we might not like.

This is a big problem! It requires some "out of the box" thinking. So let's see what's been in the news recently.

We see the UK Privy Council's final, un-appealable ruling that the current government must pay Mr Ezroy Millwood's transport company $1.85b + interest for high-handed, screwed-up handling of the transport system by the previous government. Basically, that means, we pay. Mind you, the chance of Mr Millwood getting the cash in his hand in a year or two is about the chance of a snowball in hell. Most likely, the government would like to say, "How about us paying you a few million dollars per year for the next 30 years?"

What else?

We see the current government may be doing a super-duper, high-handed (almost Finsac-class) job with Air Jamaica. We must be mushrooms; keep us in the dark and feed us crap. Remember, the national airline is owned by the government. That's supposed to be us, not them. I tried, with the assistance of Jamaicans for Justice, through the Access to Information Act starting back in September 2008 (Ministry of Finance Reference # 626/019, Acc # 230) to find out some pretty basic stuff; like, "Detailed income and expenditure statements of operations of Air Jamaica from 2006 to the level of location (gateways) job titles, cost of accommodation by city, fines incurred, etc."

To date, this has not been forthcoming. I was offered the 2006 financial statements, which I bought for $320 (receipt # NR6103107). Ha! Ha! Pretty useless.

Now, if Air Jamaica was being run properly, monthly income and expenditure statements by gateway would be readily at hand for planning the operations of an airline. We hear that Mr Bruce Nobles has been making the airline profitable.

Then why dump it? Dump it now, under the conditions as we hear, and we're guaranteed a monstrous bill and little to show for it. A profitable airline based here would give the government a nice source of taxes.

I see that Air Jamaica sponsors a jazz festival and I suppose, a number of other tourism-related things. Why? Sponsorship is a flow of money out of the company. If these are profitable ventures, as people say, why wasn't it on a profit-sharing basis, or at least, Air Jamaica fronting some money for the venture and getting back at minimum what they put in? This should have been a policy. Up front, and get back. At a profit would be nice, instead of bleeding money.

Many politicians, I hear, got to ride for free. My opinion is that no politician should ever have been given a free seat, and if they buy tickets to fly, it should be only coach. If an uppity politician wants to go first-class he or she had better pay for the upgrade out of pocket. Not us. The prime minister should set the example and go coach only, and get "jooked" by elbows like everybody else. Getting an earful from a fellow passenger might be informative too. I have seen it reported in the press that government officials go first class. Nice eh?

What more?

The IMF of course! The IMF must think they're talking to the walking dead. They surely believe that Jamaica is bankrupt, but out of politeness must pretend we're not. We owe money till our descendants for generations to come will be bankrupt.

What on earth could we do to extricate ourselves from this pit the politicians have put us in, and are even now digging it deeper and squandering any goodwill we ever had for them? I think we are stuck with the Air Jamaica debt and the redundancy payments to staff anyway, but what next?

Perhaps we should say:The Privy Council ruling + The Air Jamaica problem + The IMF = What?

We owe Mr Millwood et al a couple of billion-plus dollars, thanks to the politicians. Mr Millwood is in the transport business. Most Jamaicans don't like the idea of selling Air Jamaica to the Trinidadians and really can't see what they might want to do with it - anything that we might like. The current crop of politicians seems dead set on doing what they like regardless of what we think. (Talk about squandering the goodwill we had for them.) They won't even look at the pilots' association (JALPA) bid. They said so, in our faces. The pilots' association seems a little short of cash. I'm sure the IMF wouldn't mind seeing the big chunk of money that is Mr Millwood's Privy Council award vanish off the debt of the country, and see Air Jamaica vanish off the list of loss-making things owned by the government.

So, why not make everybody happy?

Millwood, realising the snowball's chance in hell of being immediately paid the Privy Council award, and being in the transport business, may be seeing an investment opportunity, invests in Air Jamaica with the pilots' association by saying, "Give me a part of Air Jamaica's value (at realistic current prices of course, not like the selling prices for the two aeroplanes they're hallucinating about) in lieu of the government coughing up the couple billion dollars (which they, meaning us, don't have) for the Privy Council's award, and we'll call it quits." The pilots' association (JALPA), who seem to have the idea that they can run Air Jamaica at a profit get a chance to put up or shut up. The IMF sees, with glee, Mr Millwood's award vanish off the public debt, and Air Jamaica vanishes off the government's loss-making asset list. The current set of politicians gets our goodwill back (and they hope, our votes too, next time), and we get to fly our "little piece of Jamaica" with our tons of luggage the other airlines won't let us carry.

Who says we can't all be happy?

Howard Chin is a professional engineer (mechanical) and a member of the Jamaica Institution of Engineers.

[email protected]

**evanovitch** · 02-17-2010, 08:19 PM

ACQUISITION OF AIR J WITHOUT TENDERING UNLAWFUL, SAYS OCG

ACQUISITION OF AIR J WITHOUT TENDERING UNLAWFUL, SAYS OCG
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
THE Office of the Contractor General (OCG) yesterday advised lawyers for the Jamaica Airline Pilots Association (JALPA) that it would be unlawful to acquire Air Jamaica, other than through the Government's tendering process.
According to a release yesterday from the OCG, JALPA, through its lawyers, advised that it wanted to acquire the airline through the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP), "without subjecting themselves to a tender process as neither the legislation nor the amendments thereto provide for same."
CHRISTIE… Government is obliged to divestment airline via a new public competitive tendering process
1/1
Contractor General Greg Christie, in response to JALPA's lawyers, said:
"...Should the Government of Jamaica choose to set aside the public competitive tendering process, which it has embarked upon to facilitate the singular desires of JALPA and/or the employees of Air Jamaica, or any other entity or special interest group, any such action would be viewed by the OCG as a fundamental violation of the Government contract award principles which are enshrined in Section 4 (1) of the Contractor General Act and, consequently, as an unlawful act."
He added that should negotiations break down with Caribbean Airlines, "the Government of Jamaica would be obliged, by law, to recommence the divestment of the airline via a new public competitive tendering process".

**evanovitch** · 02-17-2010, 08:37 PM

JAMAICA FOR SALE - CHEAP AND QUICK! HEART TO HEART

JAMAICA FOR SALE - CHEAP AND QUICK!
HEART TO HEART
With Betty Ann Blaine
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Dear Reader,
At the rate at which the country is going, the government might as well string up a banner from one end of the island to the other with the words, "Jamaica for sale - cheap and quick". It must be obvious to all of us that our country is on the auction block, and it doesn't matter who or where the buyer comes from - so long as the sale is consummated - and consummated quickly.
Under the fluttering banner of divestment, the remaining vestiges of our national assets are now in the "Classifieds" - Air Jamaica, sugar factories operated by the Sugar Company of Jamaica, Jamaica Public Service Company, National Water Commission, the Port Authority, Norman Manley Airport... and the list goes on. It has left some people asking, "When is Jamaica House going to be up for sale?" As the government fine-tunes the specifics of the assortment of divestments, it is the impending sale of Air Jamaica that is now an extremely controversial topic. And rightly so.
As far as I am concerned, the story of Air Jamaica is more than a story about the sale of some aeroplanes and the stated imperatives of divestment procedures and protocols. The impending sale of Air Jamaica represents a much bigger story of how the country has been pawned and prostituted by successive administrations without any regard for the impact their decisions have, and will make on the present and future generations of Jamaicans.
The prime minister's address to parliament last week regarding the sale of our national airline left me wondering whose side he is really on. I'm not sure if he realised the great public relations job he has been doing for Caribbean Airlines. It seemed obvious to me that Mr Golding was doing more than selling Air Jamaica. He seemed to be making absolutely sure that nothing stands in the way of consummating the deal with Trinidad's Caribbean Airlines.
Let me be perfectly clear. We want Mr Golding to know that we understand how critical it is to lift the Air Jamaica burden off the backs of the Jamaican taxpayers. What many of us don't understand, however, is why more effort isn't being made to ensure that Air Jamaica remains in local hands, procedures and protocols, notwithstanding.
I have a difficulty accepting man-made faits accomplis cast in heavy cement when in fact it is the same men who are the designers and makers of both. While it is important to respect agreements and contracts, there are times when flexibility is required, especially when those negotiations are in the interest of an entire nation. Are we to accept without question that in the interest of the Jamaican people Bruce Golding and Patrick Manning could not arrive at some kind of compromise which would preserve the pride and integrity of the Trinidad negotiations, while respecting and honouring the wishes of large constituencies of Jamaican people, including, and especially the workers of Air Jamaica? For many Jamaicans, it is not just the fact that the airline has to be sold, but what irks them is the callous and indifferent manner in which Air Jamaica is being discounted to Trinidad. I would like to tell our prime minister that the country doesn't need a chief technocrat. What Jamaica needs at this critical juncture of the country's life is a chief patriot and a chief visionary.
What angers we most about the Air Jamaica giveaway to Trinidad is that it represents the latest chapter in the book of how a country and its people have been systematically dissected, dismantled and sold off piece by piece to foreigners. Jamaica's experience brings to mind the book, Things Fall Apart, by Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe.
The argument that the Jamaica Airline Pilots' Association's proposal is not sustainable, is hypothetical at best and manipulative at worst. If the government sells Air Jamaica to JALPA and the airline's staff, like Pontius Pilate, it will simultaneously wash its hands off the Lovebird. If the airline flops after that, it's none of the government's business. My position is that if Air Jamaica must die, let it die after we have all put up a valiant and noble fight to keep it in Jamaican hands.
And JALPA's proposal, though said to be late (the association, however, claims that their bid was put in from August last year), is a well-thought out, thorough business plan with modest, yet clear projections and targets, and with both a short- and long-term plan to turn the airline around. In a country where nationalism is being exchanged for whatever is expedient, the voluntary use of the staff's redundancy payments to fund a portion of the airline's takeover is to my mind admirable and honourable. As I see it, if the staff of Air Jamaica is willing to make that kind of sacrifice for our country, the least the rest of us can do is to support them.
But perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Air Jamaica story is the way in which the issue has been distilled into a brainless and esoteric debate about procedures and protocols, when in fact it ought to be a broader and more open discussion about the past, present, and future of one of Jamaica's national treasures. It is a disgrace that we are about to dispose of Air Jamaica without the transparency and vigorous examination the matter deserves. There have been no public meetings held to discuss the matter and no public cost-benefit analysis done. The government is selling the airline with most of the information hidden from the people. But who cares, when the mantra is "Jamaica for Sale - cheap and quick"!
With love,
[email protected]

**RichD** · 02-17-2010, 09:58 PM

Re: JAMAICA FOR SALE - CHEAP AND QUICK! HEART TO HEART

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">But perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Air Jamaica story is the way in which the issue has been distilled into a brainless and esoteric debate about procedures and protocols, when in fact it ought to be a broader and more open discussion about the past, present, and future of one of Jamaica's national treasures. It is a disgrace that we are about to dispose of Air Jamaica without the transparency and vigorous examination the matter deserves. There have been no public meetings held to discuss the matter and no public cost-benefit analysis done. The government is selling the airline with most of the information hidden from the people. But who cares, when the mantra is "Jamaica for Sale - cheap and quick"!</div></div>

well summed up

**Tuff Gong** · 02-17-2010, 10:22 PM

Re: JAMAICA FOR SALE - CHEAP AND QUICK! HEART TO HEART

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: RichD</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">But perhaps the greatest tragedy of the Air Jamaica story is the way in which the issue has been distilled into a brainless and esoteric debate about procedures and protocols, when in fact it ought to be a broader and more open discussion about the past, present, and future of one of Jamaica's national treasures. It is a disgrace that we are about to dispose of Air Jamaica without the transparency and vigorous examination the matter deserves. There have been no public meetings held to discuss the matter and no public cost-benefit analysis done. The government is selling the airline with most of the information hidden from the people. But who cares, when the mantra is "Jamaica for Sale - cheap and quick"!</div></div>

well summed up </div></div>

Of course this hypoccrite extra-ordinary Petty Ann Blind.
The sameone who worked as hard as possible to keep corrupt and inept administrations in power then turn around and walk away from the mess.
Anything this lady writes i have to take with a grain of salt. These are arch-patriots only when their personal interests are at stake.

Let's understand this folks such as Petty Ann Blind produce zilch, they are not engineers, technicians, farmers. All she and her ilk does is get paid to write and disseminate opinions.
If one day the whole thing crumbles she will still write fart about it, but the guy or girl in the factory will be gone and could only console themselves at home by reading the crap that she and others write about tekking up fi the small man and Jamaica.

Air Joke is not a national treasure.

**evanovitch** · 02-18-2010, 12:53 AM

Fight for Air J could go to the courts

Fight for Air J could go to the courts
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
The battle between the government and Jamaica Airline Pilots' Association (JALPA) over Air Jamaica could be heading to courts.

On Tuesday, the Office of the Contractor General (OCG) threatened to step into the matter if the government bows to pressure and breaches the law in order to facilitate the bid by the Jamaica Airline Pilots' Association (JALPA) to acquire the airline.

However, JALPA says an arbiter may have to be brought in to the settle the legal issue involved in the proposed divestment of the airline.

Captain Russell Capleton, JALPA Past President.
"I do understand the OCG's position as he mentioned in his missive. The OCG is a creature of law and we like to think that the ESOP (Employee Share Ownership Plan) acquisition is also a creature of law, so presume that another arbiter will probably have to come into the picture since we're not in agreement and make that determination.

"I think (Contractor General Greg Christie) has actually ramped it up to another level," said Captain Russell Capleton, Immediate Past President of JALPA.

If the pilot's association decides to take the matter to court to settle the ESOP issue, it could effectively block Air Jamaica's sale to Caribbean Airlines, derailing the government's plans.

[ Back ]

**evanovitch** · 02-18-2010, 12:57 AM

PNPYO calls for boycott of Caribbean Airlines

PNPYO calls for boycott of Caribbean Airlines
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
The youth arm of the Opposition People's National Party (PNP) is calling for a boycott of Trinidad's Caribbean Airlines if the government does not give due consideration to the bid by the pilots' group to acquire Air Jamaica.

In a statement Tuesday night, the PNP Youth Organization said it takes issue with the government's unwillingness to engage the Jamaica Airline Pilots' Association (JALPA) in its bid to take over and operate the airline.

Damion Crawford, PNPYO President, is suggesting that Jamaicans at home and in the Diaspora boycott Caribbean Airlines, if the Bruce Golding led administration proceeds with the sale of Air Jamaica without giving JALPA an equal opportunity.

"The government has been treating the workers of Air Jamaica with scant regard which is reminiscent of the way that they've treated all the other worker including teachers, nurses etc. We believe that the people of this country should therefore take affirmative action as it relates to what the government is doing and how they're doing it and boycott Caribbean Airlines if Air Jamaica is sold to it," he said.

On Tuesday, JALPA suffered a setback in its bid for Air Jamaica.

The Office of the Contractor General said it will step in if the government bows to pressure and breaches the law in order to facilitate the Air Jamaica staff's bid to acquire the ‘Lovebird'.

**evanovitch** · 02-18-2010, 01:21 AM

Re: JAMAICA FOR SALE - CHEAP AND QUICK! HEART TO HEART

<span style="font-weight: bold"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Let's understand this folks such as Petty Ann Blind produce zilch, they are not engineers, technicians, farmers. All she and her ilk </div></div></span>

curiously classist statement... so wat will all the hotel waiting staff produce?

**evanovitch** · 02-18-2010, 01:28 AM

'Pilot Plan Flawed' - Golding Says...

'Pilot Plan Flawed' - Golding Says...
Published: Thursday | February 18, 20100 Comments and 0 Reactions
Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

THE JAMAICAN Airline Pilots' Association's (JALPA) bid to take over Air Jamaica continues to experience difficulties and is heading for an almost certain collapse.

A day after Contractor General Greg Christie told JALPA that it would be illegal for Government to bend the rules and negotiate with them, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said yesterday that the proposal from the pilots was fundamentally flawed.
"JALPA has not, up to now, presented any credible evidence of its ability to secure the financing required to operate the airline, which it estimates to be US$100 million," a statement from Jamaica House said of the proposal submitted by the pilots.
The statement from the Office of the Prime Minister reiterated that the estimated cost of redundancy payments to workers is US$27 million, not US$47 million, as assumed by the pilots.
JALPA's bid proposal states that US$40 million of the US$100 million that it would use to keep Air Jamaica flying would come from redundancy payments to which the workers would be entitled.
Jamaica House also stated that JALPA had submitted the names of two overseas private-equity firms that it claims have offered to source the remaining US$60 million.
In ripping through JALPA's proposal, Golding said the organisation "admits that these private-equity firms have not yet reviewed its (JALPA's) business plan".
He said: "It is, therefore, a gross exaggeration to suggest that it has identified sources of financing if this is to mean anything more than identifying sources that it hopes will seek to identify sources of financing."
However, Granville Valentine, vice-president of the National Workers' Union, said the prime minister's statement would not stop the workers from seeking to take over the national carrier.
"In coming days, we will continue to press along and ask the contractor general and continue to ask the Jamaican people to come out and strongly lobby and convince the prime minister not to give away our airline to Trinidad," Valentine told The Gleaner yesterday.
However, Golding has said that the insistence on retaining the airline in Jamaican ownership, "desirable and patriotic though that might be", can only take place on the back of a viable plan.
Unsustainable operation

The prime minister has noted that JALPA's business plan states that it will have a "lean but focused workforce", which would make its operation unsustainable.
"This runs counter to the implied intention to retain 85 per cent of the current workforce of 1,607 to operate a fleet of seven aircraft. This would result in an employee-aircraft ratio of 195:1 - an uneconomic ratio," Golding said, arguing that American Airlines has an employee-aircraft ratio of 113:1.
"There are other operating forecasts in JALPA's business plan, including passenger loads, unit costs and revenues that are overly optimistic, given the current realities of the airline industry and the intensity of competition from low-cost carriers operating under the Open Skies Agreement. These forecasts would most certainly be revised once the lender or investor conducts the required due diligence, and this will impact significantly and negatively on the viability and sustainability of its proposal," said Golding.
JALPA had written to the contractor general, arguing that the workers had a right to be considered for the purchase of the airline.
Christie said in his response, however, that, should the Government choose to facilitate the singular desires of JALPA and/or the employees of Air Jamaica, or any other entity or special-interest group, his office would view that move as a fundamental violation of the government contract-award principles.
[email protected]