BWIA gets more time to pay US$3m debt By Curtis Rampersad Express 04.08.03 BWIA's major aircraft lessor, International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC), has extended today's deadline for the cash-strapped carrier to pay US$3 million in lease payments for its aircraft. The last-minute reprieve came as the national airline hustled to complete a new cost-cutting plan to present to Prime Minister Patrick Manning today seeking financial assistance to keep the airline flying. Today's deadline had required BWIA to make the payment for its six Boeing 737-800 ILFC-leased aircraft. The airline is said to be about six weeks behind in its monthly payments to ILFC. But ILFC has given the airline some breathing space as it seeks further financial aid from the government. In making the disclosure yesterday, BWIA's corporate communications director, Clint Williams, said: "The ILFC has extended the time to pay to give BWIA the opportunity to get a formal response from the government on the request for financial assistance."In the meantime, flights will operate on BWIA's normal schedule today. In an interview last week, BWIA chief executive officer Conrad Aleong admitted that the airline "may not make it beyond April 15 without a significant and immediate cash infusion". BWIA is losing hundreds of thousands of dollars a week and has seen a slide in travel demand since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States. It has had some trouble paying some $53 million in severance benefits to 617 workers who were retrenched on January 28, although yesterday the airline announced that full severance had been paid to 29 former employees. A further 39 people for whom Board of Inland Revenue approval was received last week were having their cheques processed for payment in full this week. The remaining 127 former workers to receive under $25,000 in severance are being processed by the BIR, and BWIA will wait on approval before making full payment, the airline said in a statement. For the 277 former employees scheduled to receive over $25,000 in severance and for whom no BIR approval has yet been received, the company made one payment yesterday, equivalent to about one-half month's salary, towards final severance. The airline said this was an attempt to assist them with ongoing daily expenses. Another payment will be made on April 22. The payments range between $2,000 and $10,000 and amount to about $1.5 million. BWIA said as at 4 p.m. yesterday, 41 former workers had collected their first April cheques. But organisations representing retrenched workers are advising them not to accept the payments. Theo Oliver, president of the Superintendents Association for BWIA, said the airline had until April 15 to make good on its severance payments under the Severance Benefits Act, but that if workers accepted a payment, they weren't certain if they would get their full benefits on time. BWIA's Board of Directors met yesterday to review the new cost-cutting plan which the airline will present to the Manning administration today. Up to late last night, CEO Aleong was said to be polishing the plan which the airline hopes to use to secure financing from the government to stay afloat. In addition to showing that the airline can be viable, the plan is said to include measures to reduce the frequency of daily flights to North America and proposes asking employees to take salary cuts of between five and 25 per cent. *************************************************** 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.carstt.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************