BWIA cleared for take-off By Bernard Babb , Express 02.19.03 By addressing its single biggest expense item=97employee wages and=20 salaries=97Chief Executive Officer Conrad Aleong says BWIA has been cleared= =20 for take-off. =93Despite what you have been hearing in the news, we are now= =20 cleared for take-off,=94 Aleong told tourism industry partners in Barbados= =20 recently. He said employee costs amounted to US$54 million a year for=20 BWIA, and along with aircraft rentals (US$40m) and fuel (US $34m) were the= =20 leading operating cost items for the airline. =93Those three costs alone=20 make up 50 per cent of our operating costs. So you cannot reduce your costs= =20 without impacting on employee costs,=94 he said. The BWIA chief spoke at= the=20 Accra Hotel, following critical meetings with Minister of Tourism and=20 International Transport Noel Lynch and officials of the Barbados Tourism=20 Authority. Among other things, they discussed BWIA=92s continued commitment= =20 to Barbados, new routes to be opened by the carrier in March and the=20 island=92s usual marketing support for the airline. Lynch said Barbados had= =20 made no cash commitments to the airline which accounts for 25 per cent of=20 all traffic to the destination. Aleong arrived in Bridgetown for talks=20 after BWIA severed 617 employees, one in Barbados, as part of its effort to= =20 reduce costs and to become competitive. He said the airline had no choice= =20 but to act to save itself. =93Since August last year we were negotiating with unions but we were unable= =20 to get a meaningful deal to sufficiently cut back on costs. We had to make= =20 a decision after months of negotiations and trying to get concessions,=94 he= =20 said. Aleong further said that Bridgetown was an important centre in=20 BWIA=92s operations and the airline was committed to Barbados. =93Barbados is very strategic to BWIA=92s operations. Trinidad is the= home-base=20 but our commercial headquarters are right here in Barbados,=94 he said. = BWIA=20 has not reduced flights to Barbados and this has been interpreted in=20 industry circles as a deliberate business decision which underscores=20 Barbados=92 importance as a critical part of the leisure market for=20 BWIA. BWIA has negotiated a US$13 million loan from the Trini- dad=20 Government and under its =93New Business Model=94 has a cost-saving= imperative=20 of US$1.4 million per month. In 2002, the airline reported a net loss of=20 US$28 million. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.trotters.net TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************