(Jamaica Gleaner) Aircraft maintenance in Jamaica has been dealt a severe blow as Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) carried out another round of redundancies, sending home 90 Jamaican employees.
The latest group to be issued with redundancy letters by the Trinidad-based company includes 30 aircraft mechanics, human resource officers, customer relations and finance personnel. The staff received their letters of termination on Thursday afternoon.
“Aircraft maintenance in Jamaica may very well become extinct as this was the last carrier employing Jamaicans,” said a highly placed source at the airline. The source said everything had been moved to Trinidad and even the Jamaicans who were there working in Port-of-Spain have been sent back home.
Hangar closed
The latest exercise sees the closure of the aircraft hangar in Kingston, administration, ground equipment and facilities. The source says all departments have been affected, with only 10 persons from the airline’s original team left on its Sangster International Airport team.
In the meantime, The Gleaner understands that the issue of the 75 pilots who were made redundant in April has been settled, and many have now signed contracts.
The airline has reportedly tagged the series of redundancies as an ‘Integration into the Caribbean Airlines Network’.
