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February 5, 2008 |
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AIR JAMAICA: Gov't Wants to Stop Allotting Budget for Airline Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding told the Jamaica Information Service that the government is considering removing the airline from the national budget. According to the Jamaica Information Service, Prime Minister Golding admitted during his first one-hour radio call-in program from Jamaica House that the government is spending over US$100 million to maintain Air Jamaica. Prime Minister Golding commented to the Jamaica Information Service, "We have given instructions to the Ministry of Finance and Public Service to have discussions with private interests that will be prepared to come in and still run it, as Air Jamaica still employs our pilots and flight attendants. But take it off our books so that the money we are spending to keep Air Jamaica going, we can spend that to improve our education and try and improve our hospitals and try and fix some roads." Air Jamaica is important to Jamaica as it provides a significant number of airlifts that are important to the tourism sector. If tourists are having problems coming to Jamaica "they will get flights somewhere else and we will lose the business," the Jamaica Information states, citing Prime Minister Golding. Headquartered in Kingston, Jamaica, Air Jamaica -- http://www.airjamaica.com/ -- was founded in 1969. It flies passengers and cargo to almost 30 destinations in the Caribbean, Europe, and North America. Air Jamaica offers vacation packages through Air Jamaica Vacations. The company closed its intra- island services unit, Air Jamaica Express, in October 2005. The Jamaican government assumed full ownership of the airline after an investor group turned over its 75% stake in late 2004. The government had owned 25% of the company after it went private in 1994. The Jamaican government does not plan to own Air Jamaica permanently. * * * As reported in the Troubled Company Reporter-Latin America on June 12, 2007, Moody's Investors Service assigned a rating of B1 to Air Jamaica Limited's guaranteed senior unsecured notes. On July 21, 2006, Standard & Poor's Rating Services assigned a "B" long-term foreign issuer credit rating on Air Jamaica Ltd., which is equal to the long-term foreign currency sovereign credit rating on Jamaica, based on the government's unconditional guarantee of both principal and interest payments. |
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