Caribbean World Forum: Air Jamaica leaves London

LAST CALL TO CARIBBEAN GATE AT HEATHROW

The buzz here in London this week is that Air Jamaica is leaving us - once again !!

A sense of déjà vu for us overseas Jamaicans living in the UK – Air Jamaica pulled out of the UK in the 1980’s and it seems like just the other day it returned to service London.

But why is an unprofitable airline shedding a profitable route?

Make no mistake the Jamaica –UK air route is a lucrative one. Ask any airline expert.

The big efficient workhorse airplanes (Boeing 777, Airbus A340’s) flying at close to seating and configuration capacity all year round, turning around at midnight (or some other ungodly hour) to fly-back shortly after touch down, capitalising on the 5-6 hour time difference, to give a utilisation of capital asset that airlines would die for in this globally competitive industry. The route’s (potential for) profitability is not in question.

Furthermore, in business you cannot easily sell a “loss making” operation to another competitor, much less two (BA & Virgin). If it were not commercially attractive, why would BA apparently vie for it against Virgin for the route, as has been reported?

As for the Heathrow landing slots; they are the “crown jewels” of any global airline.

If it’s a done deal between Air Jamaica and Virgin, I sincerely hope that the Jamaica Government ensured negotiations for the best price & terms for the people of Jamaica and its travelling Diaspora!!

But why pull out of London and, by extension, access to Europe? What will be the full economic cost of this action? I have a sense there are many factors at play here but in essence it reflects the Government strategy with regards to the future of the national airline – “cost cutting” - and I think it is a short sighted one.

There is an UK/EU vs.USA dimension to Jamaica which I think is interesting and a symbolic one.

Firstly, the European company Airbus competitively, and aggressively, edged out American Boeing many years ago such that the Air Jamaica (and other airlines) had exclusively Airbuses in their fleet. Apparently the current strategy involves replacing the Air JA’s European Airbuses with Boeing aircraft. I suspect the A-340’s replacement (servicing the London route) would have had significant knock on costs – large Boeing plane acquisition, pilot retrain, etc. – that the Government and company did not want to contemplate.

Secondly, some of us in the UK Diaspora believe the Jamaican Government have us playing second fiddle to our Jamaican Diasporan counterparts living in the

USA

Ergo drop the London route, even if it a profitable one, for expediency in the airline’s restructuring process. What about the issues which the typical Jamaica-bound air traveller is concerned about in travelling from the UK – baggage allowance (BA’s is insulting its customers with its stingy 23kg baggage allowance); price competitiveness and seat availability at peak times, etc.?

Feelings are running high amongst the UK Jamaican community. Rightly or wrongly, there is a sense of being abandoned by the Jamaican Government, not to mention the dent to our national pride – “can’t we run a national airline on a global scale?”

Perhaps the answer to that question is - “NO”!!

Air Jamaica's Future Prospects

To compete successfully in today’s global airline industry the conventional wisdom is that either you become a no-frills, low cost carrier or else become part of a wider alliance.

The former, current strategy of down-sizing to become profitable, if fully realised, will probably see Air Jamaica down to a handful of destinations – mostly to the USA (New York, Miami etc).

However I believe there is an alternative more viable option whereby we can run a successful Regional Caribbean carrier through a global expansion strategy. That’s right, not downsizing but expansion. It will be a long term investment (not a cost) facilitating the projection of the Caribbean (including Brand Jamaica) onto the wider world stage.

Air Jamaica, through regional collaboration, should aim to become a Singapore Airlines or an Emirates or even a Virgin (Atlantic) – connecting the Caribbean (including Central America) to the wider world directly!

National Global Competitiveness

There was an excellent article by Dennis Morrison in Sunday’s Observer (May 20^th) expounding the Governments far-sighted investment in the Jamaican Highway 2000 project. What he stated as true for a national distribution road network is equally true for an international distribution air system – instead of “roads” think “air routes”.

I can only hope the Jamaican Government can exhibit similar courage and leadership to rethink its policy for restructuring the national airline downwards.

Otherwise the risk is that Air Jamaica will be diminished to a two-bit carrier unable to deliver critical national strategic priorities such as Tourism Development, Export Development, Inward Investment, Diasporan Integration, Airfreight of Exports, Caribbean Regional Integration, Establishing an integrated regional transport hub, Global promotion of Brand Jamaica etc. etc…….