Graham Warwick/Washington DC
Air Jamaica wants to move to an all-Airbus fleet "as soon as possible", to cut costs, but is being stymied by a lack of available aircraft. The Jamaican flag carrier is looking for at least four A320s and one A340, says chief executive Christopher Zacca.
The airline is negotiating with International Lease Finance for two A320s, which it wants "tomorrow", says Zacca, but which will be delivered late this year and early next year. These aircraft will replace Air Jamaica's two Boeing 727-200s, which will be sold.
Zacca says that the carrier is looking for two more A320s to replace its two Boeing MD-83s, but is having trouble locating aircraft. "The narrowbody market is tight," he says. Air Jamaica wants to lease used or new aircraft, preferably similarly equipped to its existing four A320s, which are powered by CFM International CFM56s.
The airline also "urgently" requires an A340-200 to replace a smaller A310-300 equipped with long range fuel tanks, which is operated on Jamaica-UK flights. Zacca says that negotiations with Philippine Airlines for the lease of one of its four A340-200s were called off when the Asian carrier went into receivership. Now Air Jamaica is dealing directly with Airbus in trying to locate an A340, he says.
Acquisition of an A340 would reduce Air Jamaica's A310 fleet to five, one of which also has an extended range capability and would be available as a backup when the A340 is in maintenance, Zacca says. An all-Airbus fleet, consisting of one A340, five A310s and at least eight A320s, is a "strategic lynchpin" of the carrier's plan to be profitable by the end of 1999, and is intended to save $8 million a year, he says, by reducing training and maintenance costs.
The number of A320s eventually required will depend on expansion plans, Zacca says. The airline is adding frequencies on US routes and wants to serve more Caribbean destinations from its Montego Bay hub, inaugurated last year and which Zacca says is responsible for most of the carrier's growth.
Source: Flight International
