Caribbean Star to BWIA's rescue By Nadine Hosein Trinidad Guardian BWIA has been forced to ask Caribbean Star airline to assist in transporting some of its passengers. The airline, sources at Piarco said, had already assisted BWIA with one of its flights last week. Within the last week BWIA has been experiencing cancellations and delays due to an improper flight schedule for crew members. Caribbean Star was expected to help BWIA with two of its Barbados flight on Monday afternoon, sources say. However, neither pilots and members of the T&T Airline Pilots Association nor the Aviation Communication and Allied Workers Union are aware of relationship between the airlines. "We haven't heard about Caribbean Star picking up the slack at Bwee especially about the flight to Barbados, but like I said, we haven't been getting feedback from the airline, so anything could be going on," said Edward Goddard, chairman of Talpa. BWIA has been engaging in talks with the association regarding its collective agreement. The Ministry of Labour has been acting as mediator in the talks but no resolution has yet been made. The pilots have been complaining of the airline's lack of response to their needs, and the unfair demands made by BWIA on them. The pilots have been experiencing problems with scheduling of fleets. They attributed the problem to bad rostering on the part of the airline. Liat, the current partner of BWIA and competitor to Caribbean Star, has been said to be having problems with its planes and as such this has made it impossible for the airline to bail out BWIA. Clint Williams, BWIA's corporate communications manager, confirmed the reports about Caribbean Star. He said over the last few weeks the airline has had to rely on other airlines to carry it's passengers. Williams said it was standard industry practice to ask other airlines to carry passengers who were affected by cancellations but it is done at a cost. He could not confirm the claims about Liat, but he said when BWIA has problems it uses the best and first airline available and if Liat does not fly to any destination others would have to be used. 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: (TnT Medical Assn.) http://www.tntmedical.com/ (Trinidad & Tobago Medical Association) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************