BWIA=96not yet out of the woods By Curtis Rampersad (Trinidad Express, May 8, 2001) The sad reality, says BWIA chairman Lawrence Duprey, is that the airline=20 had turned itself around and was meeting targets in the IPO prospectus,=20 before the September 11 terrorist attacks =93turned our dreams of success=20 into a reality of chaos=94. The national airline posted an after-tax loss= of=20 $66.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2001. Unaudited profits of $57 million up to the third quarter were decimated.=20 But after offsetting an Extraordinary Credit of $62.1 million, the loss=20 after tax and extraordinary items was reduced to $4.3 million. Duprey=20 concedes that much of the last quarter was =93touch and go=94 for the= national=20 airline. =93In fact BWIA and the industry are not out of the woods yet,=94= he=20 admits. =93Surviving, recovering, but still getting by on a day-to-day= basis.=94 In the last quarter of 2001, the airline world was shaken by one closure=20 after another. In his chairman=92s report, Duprey notes that Swissair,= Sabena=20 and Ansett Australian were written into history in very short order,=20 victims of a staggering industry. Closer to home, ALM and EC Express also=20 succumbed. Duprey points out that BWIA=92s unaudited profits for the first= =20 eight months of last year stood at $57 million. =93Then the events of=20 September 11 shook the world and bright prospects turned dark and=20 uncertain,=94 he said. World-wide, the fourth quarter was marked by severely= =20 disrupted schedules, discontinued flights, large numbers of planes taken=20 out of service=97220 aircraft were returned to North America alone, a four= =20 per cent asset reduction in that market. In the United States 100,000 airline industry employees were laid off.=20 Saying that the airline survived =93this most challenging year in aviation= =20 history=94, Duprey points out that BWIA salvaged 2001 with a minimal net= loss=20 of $4.3 million. Airline chief executive Conrad Aleong recalls the first three months after= =20 9/11. Its profits had been eliminated and =93the airline found itself=20 struggling to pay its bills=94. The consolidated loss, even though a loss,= is=20 a noteworthy achievement in the circumstances, Aleong says in the carrier=92= s=20 annual report. Although profitability was eliminated, the gains in customer= =20 service, infrastructure developments and image, were preserved, he adds.=20 =93The impact of 9/11 is not permanent, nor has it done any structural=20 damage,=94 Aleong says, =93BWIA will recover to its pre-September 11 levels= and=20 will go on to surpass that; the open question is that of timing.=94 David E Swierenga, chief economist of the United States' Air Transport=20 Association, told Business Week magazine recently there wasn=92t much hope= =20 for improvement in the airline industry anytime soon. Citing higher wages,= =20 steep fuel prices and drop-off in seasonal and business travel, mean the=20 skies will remain dark for much of the industry in the months ahead. While= =20 he maintains business is coming back, Aleong and his team at BWIA are=20 already seeing less than what it probably would have hoped for. Aleong=20 notes that the Carnival season, normally a peak travel period, was =93a bit= =20 less busy than previous Carnivals=94. But volumes peaked and the 9/11 effect= =20 on revenue was smaller than in late 2001, he says. However, the CEO explains that management sees the keys to success in 2002= =20 as the =93continuation of cost reduction gains=94 and the return of volumes= as=20 the US economy recovers. In March, BWIA announced the departure of 44=20 employees who received separation packages. For shareholders, the prospects= =20 aren't promising these days either. Trinidad and Tobago Stocks and Shares Ltd notes that BWIA=92s net loss is=20 equivalent to negative earnings of two cents a share, compared to earnings= =20 of nine cents a share in 2000. Total operating revenue increased by $83.1=20 million to $1.69 billion while operating expenses increased by $103 million= =20 to $1.7 billion resulting in an operating loss of $16.4 million, compared=20 to an operating profit on ordinary activities of $3.5 million the previous= =20 year. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBSC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (Coco Reef) http://www.cocoreef.com/ (Coco Reef Resort & Spa) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************