BWIA plans for $ rebound By Nadine Hosein and Sherry Ann Singh T'dad Guardian BWIA CEO Conrad Aleong said last night the airline was in the middle of a number-crunching exercise to determine how best to deal with its deteriorating financial position. Speaking on the heels of the airline declaring a US$8.4 million loss, Aleong would not rule out further staff cuts, or route reduction. "The only thing I can say right now is we're looking at everything. Nothing is sacred but nothing is planned either," he said in a telephone interview. Aleong said the airline would be focusing on how best it could conserve cash between now and the end of the year and would be in a better position to say how it planned to deal with its woes by next week. "This is a delicate time for BWee financially, but we have plans for an economic rebound," the CEO said earlier. He was speaking at the scheduled inaugural flight to Manchester, England. BW990 left yesterday at 4.30 pm. On board were Minister of Trade and Industry Ken Valley, and director of corporate communications for BWIA Clint Williams. Aleong said while the US$8.4 million loss in the first six months of the year may be seen as bad for the airline, the important thing is the profits BWIA made for the last three consecutive years. The airline is embarking on plans to enter the leisure market and the Manchester flight is the first step towards this goal, said Aleong. This move by BWIA will strengthen the financial foothold of the company, said Valley, and place the airline in the international aviation market. This, said the Minister, was a key move for Trinidad. "Overall, our basic objective is to establish T&T as a major manufacturing platform; a transhipment hub and financial centre for the region," said Valley. Also at the opening ceremony was Works and Transport Minister Arnold Piggot. Last Wednesday, BWIA cancelled flight BW484, which was scheduled to depart from Port-of-Spain at 9.05 am. Williams said the problem was due to an unfortunate circumstance where two pilots who act as reserves for each other called in sick. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ The Trinbago Site of the Week: (Queen's Hall) http://queenshall.org/ (Queen'sHall) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************