KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC:
RESPECTED CARIBBEAN political scientist, Professor Neville Duncan, says Caribbean countries should now seriously consider the establishment of a regional airline in light of the current cash problems facing Air Jamaica.
"We are going into the (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy and we really need to be in charge of an airline that will move us around easily and cheaply in this region," Professor Duncan said.
He said a merger with the Trinidad national airline, BWIA, and a number of the other airlines operating in the region "would be in fact a very good move at this time".
"They are all in trouble but at the same time I think the possibility for merger and great efficiency would materialise," said Professor Duncan.
On Monday, Air Jamaica Chairman, Dr. Vin Lawrence, said the possibility exists that the national carrier could be closed down as part of a restructuring exercise.
SUGGESTION BRUSHED ASIDE
But suggestions for a merger involving Air Jamaica and other regional carriers have been brushed aside in the past. The latest effort to form a single carrier involving BWIA and the Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT) has so far failed to materialise.
But Professor Duncan, who heads the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute for Social and Economic Studies, said the reluctance on the part of Jamaicans stemmed from several factors.
"There is still the strong element of nationalism, but also there is the sense that there are issues that we are not talking about, rather than engage, we stand in the distance and criticise BWIA or we criticise Antigua-based LIAT," he said.
"We really need to do it at the level, initially as business persons, not just as politicians and for them to see it as an economic proposition which will require some government support in the beginning but in the end to have a projection that says they will be profitable and stable," said Professor Duncan.
Air Jamaica's interim management is scheduled to submit its recommendations to the P.J. Patterson administration by the end of next month.
According to Dr. Lawrence recent checks by aviation restructuring experts have shown that the airline is in an even worst position than initially assumed.
