Graham Warwick/MIAMI
NEWLY PRIVATISED Caribbean airlines Air Jamaica and BWIA International Airways are moving ahead with fleet replacements and acquisitions of local regional carriers. Progress was detailed at the SH&E/Airline Business conference on Latin American aviation in Miami, Florida, held on 2-3 November.
Air Jamaica has agreed to lease six ex-Delta Air Lines Airbus A310-300s from the manufacturer and to purchase two Airbus A320-200s, says chief financial officer Michael Norton. The airline plans to lease or buy a further four A320s, he says. The aircraft will replace Air Jamaica's present fleet of A300B4s and Boeing 727-200s.
Norton says that Air Jamaica has received Government permission to acquire domestic and regional airline Trans-Jamaica, and plans to re-equip the carrier with five or six Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8s and Raytheon Beech 1900s. Air Jamaica, meanwhile, has signed a code-sharing agreement with United Airlines, he says.
BWIA says that it will decide between Airbus A320s and A340s and Boeing 757s and 767s by the end of November. The aircraft will replace Lockheed L-1011s and McDonnell Douglas MD-83s, with the exact number acquired dependent on the outcome of applications for new routes, says vice-president Beatrix Carrington.
An announced order for five Embraer EMB-145 regional jets is not firm, she reveals, and BWIA is still in talks with Bombardier and British Aerospace. Embraer is unable to guarantee delivery of the first aircraft by the end of 1996, Carrington says.
BWIA has agreed to acquire regional airline Air Caribbean, which operates between Trinidad and Tobago with Japanese NAMC YS-11s.
The carrier also has Government approval to acquire 29% of Leeward Islands-based LIAT, when that airline is privatised. The carriers are already negotiating a commercial agreement to share services. BWIA, meanwhile, has inaugurated a code-sharing agreement with American Airlines.
Source: Flight International
