BWIA gets reprieve; airplanes returned PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (AP) =97 Creditors returned two planes seized from= =20 BWIA because of overdue lease payments, and agreed Thursday to give the=20 Trinidad-based airline a four-month reprieve on further debt payments,=20 officials said. The International Lease Finance Corp. reached its agreement= =20 with government officials Thursday, said Keith Rowley, planning and=20 development minister. The government, which owns a third of the airline,=20 requested the meeting after the leasing company threatened to seize more=20 planes if a $5.5 million payment was not made. The airline owes the company= =20 $15 million. The government said it would loan BWIA the money for the first= =20 payment, and would guarantee further installments until the debt was repaid= =20 over the next four months, Rowley said. The leasing company seized two=20 Boeing 737s at Miami International Airport last week, and said it would=20 take six more if the company unless the company met its debt. International= =20 Lease Finance owns eight of BWIA's nine planes. The seizures caused the=20 airline's other creditors to demand immediate payment, Rowley said. BWIA's= =20 total debt amounts to about $100 million, and the company's directors have= =20 said the airline could not pay the money owed and faces "out and out=20 bankruptcy." The agreement Thursday should ease creditors' anxieties,=20 Rowley said, noting that BWIA will now be able to operate all of its=20 flights throughout the busy summer months, the company's most profitable=20 period, he said. BWIA has blamed its financial difficulties in part on=20 increases in security and insurance costs and a drop in passengers that=20 followed the Sept. 11 attacks. The war in Iraq resulted in a further=20 passenger reduction, the company said. *************************************************** 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 *********************************************************