Works and Transport Minister Jack Warner has described the merger between Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) and Air Jamaica as a good deal and a win-win situation for all.Before a packed ballroom at the Pegasus Hotel on Friday, Warner said the merger which represents one airline, one vision, and one Caribbean "would embrace the Caribbean as a united front, where the politicians had failed before.
Warner remembered 1961 when the late Prime Minister of T&T, Dr Eric Williams said, "'One from ten leaves nought', and that was that."The West Indian Federation failed, but this merger cannot fail."The merger between CAL and Air Jamaica, Warner said, will work.The rebranded Air Jamaica planes with the CAL logo, took off from the Norman Manley International Airport for the first time yesterday, heading to Toronto, Canada, a release from the Ministry indicated.
Air Jamaica would look after the leisure passengers while CAL would be responsible for the business-oriented travellers.Basking in the glory of the joint venture, Warner said, "My business sense tells me this is a good deal, and I assure you, this is a good deal."CAL chairman George Nicholas III also announced that Air Jamaica, within the next six months, would be flying into Heathrow International Airport, London, once more.
Warner, on the other hand, asked: "Why did the Government of Trinidad and Tobago sell its two slots at Heathrow for a paltry two million pounds when we were swimming in money? I want to know why they were sold?"He, however added: "We will turn history on its head, and we will be there."Warner apologised to Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding for the absence of T&T's Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who remained in Trinidad to pilot a bill in Parliament on Friday to remove obstacles to the death penalty and to allow for the creation of three categories of murder in T&T.
The time had come, Warner said, to deal with crime and those who committed the most heinous murders will face the hangman.His comment, the release from the Works Ministry stated, caused Golding to raise his eyebrows while the packed ballroom applauded.Golding praised the CAL board, in particular Warner, for ensuring that Air Jamaica took to the skies again.Golding said the change of T&T's Government after the May 2010 general election had caused him and Jamaicans great concern. However, after speaking with Warner he was assured that the merger would take place.