The national airline, Air Jamaica, spent approximately J$52 million (US$589,000) last month to sublease two aircraft from the United States entity North American Airlines.

But the management of the airline says the sublease was necessary and did not put an additional financial strain on the cash-strapped airline.

"The direct operating costs of one aircraft versus another is minimal and, in some cases, the sub-leased aircraft were larger than our planned aircraft, so we could sell additional seats offsetting any operating cost difference," Bruce Nobles, president and chief executive officer of Air Jamaica, told The Gleaner.

"We frequently use North American Airlines for subleasing when we need additional capacity. This summer, we have used North American on several occasions, as well as Miami Air and USA 3000," Nobles added.

Restructuring plans

Bruce Nobles (above), president and chief executive officer of Air Jamaica.

According to Nobles, several issues forced Air Jamaica to sub-lease aircraft at a time when the airline's restructuring plans had caused it to return some of the planes it had leased.

"In one case, we had an aircraft damaged in Baltimore by our contract ground handler. They ran into the aircraft with a piece of ground equipment while it was parked overnight. It took almost a week to repair the damage. Thus, we subleased an aircraft from North American for the week while the repair was being completed," said Nobles.

However, Nobles did not say if the cost to repair the damaged aircraft and to lease its replacement was borne by the airline or the contract ground handlers.

"We have also had several mechanical incidents that caused aircraft to be grounded for a day or two at a time. We have an aircraft in scheduled heavy overhaul that has been delayed. This aircraft was planned for operation this summer and has thus reduced our backup capacity," said Nobles.

Air Jamaica has, in the past, faced criticisms about its maintenance schedule but this time around, Nobles hinted that there was no problem.

He said usually Air Jamaica leases planes for a day or two and at present, the airline has no subleases.

The Air Jamaica president said the airline is operating with high load factors at this time with strong demand on its routes.

"In key markets like New York and Florida, we are full. In other tourist markets like Baltimore and Philadelphia, our loads are heavy. The Caribbean markets, like Havana, Nassau and Curaçao, are traditionally softer at this time of year."

Early this year, Air Jamaica announced that it would be returning some leased aircraft while reducing its fleet from 15 to between nine and seven.

This was done at the same time that the airline cut the number of routes it operates on.