–acting CEO
Acting CEO of EZjet Air Services Inc. Rosalinda Rasul has assured that there will be no disruption in the airline’s schedule and that passengers have nothing to worry about, noting that Thursday’s cancellation of a Toronto-bound flight was due to low bookings that are seasonal and unrelated to the disclosure of a US lawsuit against the airline’s owner.
EZjet founder Sonny Ramdeo on Thursday announced that he stepped down from his post as Chief Executive Officer to remove any doubt about the “viability” of the airline in the wake of a lawsuit by his former employer accusing him of embezzlement.
Ramdeo is facing a civil suit in the United States filed by his former employers, who are accusing him of devising a “sophisticated scheme of fraud and deception” to embezzle some US$5.4 million from them.
Reports out of the US state that Promise Healthcare and 11 of its hospitals brought the suit against Ramdeo, their former payroll manager who they hired eight years ago to manage the payroll for 3,500 employees in hospitals nationwide.
Named along with Ramdeo as plaintiffs in the suit are EZjet GT and PayServ Tax, a company that Ramdeo allegedly set up to commit the fraud.
Observers questioned what implications the airline would face to its viability if the main financier of the business had to divorce himself from it. “We asked the same questions ourselves in our internal discussions of the issue when we learnt about it and we have the assurance that the investment is safe and protected and there is nothing to worry about that. His stepping aside is merely to protect the investment, protect the image…the brand of EZjet,” Rasul said.
“For him, Ramdeo considers this a personal matter that he has to deal with and it is the fact that it is a US Registered company that is involved in the lawsuit as opposed to a Guyanese registered company. [Ramdeo] established the company in such a way so that if one should ever fall into a lawsuit, it would not affect the operations or the investment, but so far, even with him stepping aside, the investment is sound and secure,” she said.
The acting CEO said that there is an advisory board at the airline comprising persons with decades of experience in the aviation industry.
She said that while the decision to step down was Ramdeo’s, it concurred with their thinking on the matter.
“It was his decision, and he communicated it to everyone and it was respected. We all had the same goal of protecting the brand,” she said. “We were happy with the decision because it was a very good decision on his part and we do appreciate him doing that. You would realise that as a founder owner, you would want to be involved in your own business. That he has stepped aside is a very good sign that he has concerns about the airline and its operation,” she added.
Rasul explained that because of the low passenger turnout, the airline consolidated them with others who will be leaving for Toronto on Tuesday. She said that for persons who would have turned up at the airport on Thursday, the airline rebooked them for departure on Tuesday and for some persons who had emergencies and could not wait, EZjet put them in hotels and booked them for departure on other carriers.
Rasul said that the flight for Thursday was almost half full and this being the case, EZjet decided it was uneconomical to depart with that passenger load. “We thought that it was more than an economical decision not to fly with that [load],” she said.
The acting CEO said that contrary to the belief that the aircraft that did not take off on Thursday was still at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, the plane took off yesterday morning for JFK International. “What happened is that the aircraft stayed overnight. It was removed from the apron to allow other aircraft [space]. By 10 am yesterday it was brought back to the apron for preparation – fuel, cleaning, etc – in preparation for takeoff,” she said.
She noted that the low numbers of passengers for Thursday’s Toronto-bound flight could not be attributed to the disclosures about the lawsuit against Ramdeo, since the seats were booked before the stories came out. “It is a normal thing when you are into the low-flying season,” she said.
She noted that the schedule remains intact and EZjet’s flights to Toronto will be once a week on Tuesdays, while Trinidad’s flights will be on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. New York, she said, will be Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. “This [issue] will not affect our flights. We have full flights booked for Christmas. I had a talk with our carrier and they assured us that they are with us and will honour all their obligations to us.
We are continuing as per schedule. We are doing our promotions and we will honour all that we have to honour in terms of our commitments to different people. There is no disruption in service for now or for Christmas so there should not be any fear,” she said.
Rasul said that presently the airline’s schedule has to be serviced by one wet-leased Boeing 767 aircraft. “We’re expecting a second Boeing 767 for Christmas and then we are expecting two or three smaller aircraft to come in for the regional flights,” she said. “When those come in then we are going to start the Barbados run,” she said, adding that it is likely that these island flights will become daily.
