Dawn Ritch, Contributor

When my column appeared last week, a friend of mine who knows Bruce Golding well called to say that I'd just put Mike Henry in a lot of trouble. Golding is sure, he said, to cut him down a peg or two.

In that column, I had commended Henry on his principled stand on the sale of Air Jamaica's Heathrow slots to Virgin Atlantic, which had yet to be concluded. Readers should note that Jamaica had 11 slots at Heathrow, and there are seven left. The winter slots have already been obtained by Virgin. The negotiations were now on the remaining summer slots.

This means effectively that the deal with Virgin can't be completed until the slots are signed for. So, the fact is that the Virgin deal was not a done deal.

Imagine my horror, therefore, on Tuesday morning, to find a banner headline in this newspaper reporting that Air Jamaica had been summarily removed from Mike Henry's portfolio as Minister of Transportation and Works. Effective immediately, it was to become the responsibility of Don Wehby, Minister of State in the Ministry of Finance. And all this despite the fact that sources in the Bruce Golding administration have advised me that the matter of Air Jamaica's slots had been placed before a sub-committee of his Cabinet, which included Dr. Carlton Davis.

'hot' slot

It must be noted that Heathrow is the world's busiest airport and the gateway to Europe, and linkages with Far Eastern airlines like Singapore, Cathay and Malaysia. Airlines the world over would, therefore, pay an arm and a leg for one slot, much less 11 at Heathrow. Virgin Atlantic paid a pittance for four.

Furthermore, a code-share deal with them is not like a code-share arrangement with Singapore Airlines, which is an airline of the first rank. Even North American airlines, with the exception of American which already has slots, would kill for a slot at Heathrow.

Already, Sir Richard Branson, owner of Virgin, has said he intends to service Barbados out of Heathrow slots he obtains from us. People who want to come to Jamaica, he said, will be flown out of Gatwick. According to him, Jamaica doesn't have the market in business-class travel that Barbados does.

That may indeed be true. But it cannot be that the objective of the sale of Jamaica's slots at Heathrow is to fatten the tourism trades of Barbados, St. Lucia and Antigua to the detriment of our own.

The previous administration, principally the then Finance Minister, Dr. Omar Davies, wanted to abandon the London route because they said it lost money. Air Jamaica has a US$1 billion debt. The facts are that the Air Jamaica London route doesn't always lose money. Handled properly, it would make a lot of money. But it is most certainly hard-pressed to do so by an overstaffed airline, with 11 vice-presidents and an abandoned marketing programme.

Investment bankers and experts in the international airline industry, including the Stanford Group, were due to arrive here in the island tomorrow, at Henry's invitation, to have discussed with Henry how to maximise code-sharing agreements for Air Jamaica out of its Heathrow slots.

was it me?

Sources in the JLP Cabinet also tell me that the matter of stripping Henry of Air Jamaica was never raised. Not at last Monday's Cabinet meeting nor at any time before that. No one was given a chance to defend, or argue it. One wonders, therefore, whether my column prompted this peremptory action by Prime Minister Golding.

I am also told that Ms. Shirley Williams, the new chairman of Air Jamaica, is not in favour of the Branson deal. But the matter has been sent to Don Wehby with instructions to conclude it, because according to Golding, a deal is a deal. But the same sources tell me the deal is not a done deal. It was still being negotiated. Henry's problem, therefore, was not caused by my column. His principled stand in the interests of the country has, in my opinion, been his undoing.

We don't have to accept Branson's code-sharing offer because we are a sovereign country. This means that we can say when planes can land here and when they can take off. By marketing Air Jamaica through its access to Heathrow, we could pick, choose and refuse deals with the world's major carriers.

It is the bane of our existence that highly educated people like Omar Davies and Bruce Golding never have a clue about doing profitable business. The proposed sale of all our slots at Heathrow will effectively stop Air Jamaica from ever being able to fly to London and Europe again. Had the price been right, we could have paid down Air Jamaica's debt significantly, and still kept a few premium slots from which to earn an income. It seems to be our misfortune as a country to have only negotiators who are intimidated by white people. Somebody somewhere seems bent on ensuring that Air Jamaica can only be sold for a dollar.

open to corruption charge

I wonder, therefore, what makes this Government so anxious to conclude an unfavourable deal with Branson. The sub-committee of Cabinet set up to examine the matter has yet to make its report. It is this sort of irrational behaviour by governments which leave them open to a charge of corruption.

In this regard, it must be noted that the JLP, when in opposition, severely criticised the deal. What has happened to change their mind?

Mr. Golding has usually been regarded as an imperfect clone of Edward Seaga. Pearnel Charles has always claimed that Edward Seaga turned on him because he was more popular. Edward Seaga, however, never turned on anyone for doing a good job.