More BWIA flight delays likely By Neal Rasmine Guardian 05.26.03 PASSENGERS can expect more flight delays from the financially troubled national airline BWIA, as negotiations continue for the release of two seized 737s from its fleet of eight. "It is to be expected," BWIA's director of corporate communications Clint Williams, said yesterday. "It will have some impact on the operations of the schedule." The airline's inaugural flight back from Costa Rica was no exception. A three-hour delay at the Juan Santamaria International Airport saw the airline leaving at 2 am local time instead of the scheduled 11 pm departure time. The delay was attributed to the seizure of the two 737-800 aircraft by International Leasing Finance Corporation last week, because of a TT$31.25 (US $5 million) debt incurred by BWIA. The airline is leasing all of its 737-800 "next generation airlines" from ILFC. Williams would only say that "negotiations continue into release of the aircraft impounded at the Miami International Airport. He could not say if the $31.25 million letter of comfort made out to the company by the Government last week was paid to ILFC. Williams said the twice-weekly (Tuesday and Thursday) flights to Costa Rica are expected to go on as planned, but he cautioned passengers to call the airline for updated flight information. A tired and sleep-deprived Williams hailed the trip as a success. "It was an excellent start to developing relationships between Costa Rica and Trinidad," he said. Williams said members of the T&T delegation who made the trip managed to make many new connections with the Costa Rican business community. This should be evident today when Trinidadians are exposed to products from Costa Rica at the start of a four-day trade and investment convention, which opens at Hilton Trinidad Conference Centre in Port-of-Spain. Williams said the trip also taught the company how to market and sell the airline route better. On Saturday the Costa Rican public was treated to steelband music for the first time when BWIA Invaders played at a mall in the nation's capital of San Jose. *************************************************** 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/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.caribbeanfloral.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************