BWIA seeks more help Guardian 03.27.03 Two of BWIA's top executives met with Prime Minister Patrick Manning at the Ministry of Finance yesterday, to lay the groundwork for further State assistance to the airline, sources confirmed yesterday. BWIA chairman Lawrence Duprey and Conrad Aleong, the airline's president, were seen leaving the Financial Complex just after noon yesterday, following a meeting with the Prime Minister that lasted close to one hour. On the table for discussion, a source close to the talks disclosed, was the "serious concern" the airline now feels about the "apparent deepening of the impact of the war in Iraq on the travel industry". Six months ago, the Government agreed to make US$13.7 million available to bail out the financially-troubled airline. The Guardian understands that BWIA is now looking for assistance to liquidate its mounting debt for fuel and aircraft leases. Speaking at the Chamber of Commerce's annual general meeting yesterday, BWIA spokesman Clint Williams admitted that in a few days, the airline has seen a stark downturn in sales. "Clearly the people who had consideration for travel are holding back," he said. "We are already seeing quite a deep slope starting to come in from the west. We are very concerned at this point, because every day that that goes on, it's going to deepen the slope." He said the cancellations are spread out, "but we are seeing some fairly significant cancellations out of the US, likewise locally." *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx 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.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************