American Airlines seeks financial help from T&T By JUHEL BROWNE (Trinidad Guardian) BWIA was not the only airline which sought financial assistance from the Trinidad and Tobago Government to recover from the September 11 attacks in the United States. American Airlines did as well. Unlike BWIA which is the only international carrier to have received State help, American Airlines is still waiting on an answer to its request. Nisha Maharaj, American Airlines general manager (Trinidad and Tobago), said the airline submitted several requests for concessions from the relevant State bodies immediately after the September 11 terrorist attacks. American Airlines planes had been used by terrorists to crash into the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Since then American has had near catastrophic losses from its global operations. An American Airlines official, who did not want to be named, said Maharaj made the concession requests in writing and by phone to the Airports Authority, the Ministries of Finance and Transport. The official said the concessions sought included reduced landing fees, rental fees and other mandatory charges. "We have gotten no response," Maharaj said. Jearlean John, Minister of Transport, and a source at the Airports Authority confirmed American's requests. "That request came right after the attacks in the States," said the Airports Authority source. Interviewed yesterday by phone, John said she had attempted to contact Maharaj on several occasions since receiving the correspondence. "I did send a couple of calls out to Nisha but she was away," John said. Maharaj did not say if she received those messages. John said American was not the only non-Trinidad and Tobago based carrier to ask for concessions. "We got requests from two other airlines. There needed to emerge a policy out of this in terms of the foreign carriers. There needs to be a policy," John explained. The snap general election, and the present political dilemma, John said, has contributed to the delay in the Government's formulation of this policy. John said she is still willing to meet with Maharaj and, during the interview, instructed one of her staff to contact Maharaj's office to set up the meeting. That meeting is expected to occur today. The Minister also said she will have to meet with Finance Minister Gerald Yetming to discuss how far the State can go in accommodating the requests of American and the other foreign carriers seeking concessions. John said the Airports Authority is willing to help and believes an overall concession package for a six month period can be arranged. The American Airlines official said the carrier was expecting a response sooner since it is not seeking the kind of financial assistance BWIA requested and received. BWIA asked for a lump sum of money to recover its losses during the period when the US Government closed the nation's air space immediately after the attacks. Since American is a US based carrier, it has already received a bailout from the US Government. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com ICQ: ICQ # 15836110 ICQ Pager: mailto:15836110@pager.icq.com escape email #!1 mailto:ejames@escape.ca yahoo email #2: mailto:triniroj@yahoo.com Yahoo Pager: triniroj Caribbean Brass & Soca Connection Group on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caribsocabrass Caribbean Brass & Soca Connection Club Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ ******************************************************* Steel Expressions Orch http://www.escape.ca/~ejames/se/ email #1: mailto:steelexpressions@yahoo.com email #2: mailto:steelexpressions@home.com ******************************************************* The Trinbago Site of the Week: (101 Art Gallery) http://101artgallery.com (101 Art Gallery) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************