(Jamaica Gleaner) – The Jamaican Airline Pilots’ Association’s (JALPA) bid to take over Air Jamaica continues to experience difficulties and is heading for an almost certain collapse.
A day after Contractor General Greg Christie told JALPA that it would be illegal for government to bend the rules and negotiate with them, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said that the proposal from the pilots was fundamentally flawed.
“JALPA has not, up to now, presented any credible evidence of its ability to secure the financing required to operate the airline, which it estimates to be US$100 million,” a statement from Jamaica House said of the proposal submitted by the pilots.
The statement from the Office of the Prime Minister reiterated that the estimated cost of redundancy payments to workers is US$27 million, not US$47 million, as assumed by the pilots.
JALPA’s bid proposal states that US$40 million of the US$100 million that it would use to keep Air Jamaica flying would come from redundancy payments to which the workers would be entitled.
Jamaica House also stated that JALPA had submitted the names of two overseas private-equity firms that it claims have offered to source the remaining US$60 million.
In ripping through JALPA’s proposal, Golding said the organisation “admits that these private-equity firms have not yet reviewed its (JALPA’s) business plan”.
