Asha Javeed

Air Ja­maica's chair­man Den­nis Lalor has writ­ten to Caribbean Air­lines (CAL) point­ing out the "fruit­less" at­tempts by the Ja­maican Gov­ern­ment and the air­line to com­mu­ni­cate with CAL and the T&T Gov­ern­ment in or­der to for­malise the Share­hold­ers Agree­ment be­tween both air­lines. On Mon­day, CAL se­cured an­oth­er two-week ex­ten­sion to the agree­ment. The board's sus­pen­sion a few weeks ago, a re­sult of its in­abil­i­ty to agree on key is­sues, has de­layed fi­nal­i­sa­tion of is­sues such as Air Ja­maica.

Lalor's let­ter, dat­ed May 16-the end of the first two-week ex­ten­sion grant­ed to CAL-sought to no­ti­fy the T&T Gov­ern­ment that Air Ja­maica has met the con­di­tions de­mand­ed in the agree­ment. The let­ter was copied to the Min­istry of Fi­nance. It stat­ed that the Ja­maican Gov­ern­ment and Air Ja­maica "are and have been for a while, ready, will­ing and able to close the trans­ac­tions con­tem­plat­ed by the agree­ment on the terms spec­i­fied in the agree­ment." It point­ed out that CAL "has been and is ob­lig­at­ed to im­me­di­ate­ly close the trans­ac­tions con­tem­plat­ed by the agree­ment on the terms spec­i­fied in the agree­ment.

"Caribbean Air­lines' un­will­ing­ness to do so is a vi­o­la­tion of the agree­ment," it said. Such vi­o­la­tion, the let­ter said, would cause the Ja­maican Gov­ern­ment and Air Ja­maica "sig­nif­i­cant dam­ages and ir­repara­ble harm." It stat­ed the T&T Gov­ern­ment is "ob­lig­at­ed to take cer­tain ac­tions in con­nec­tion with the clos­ing." Lalor's let­ter con­clud­ed that it "ex­press­ly re­serves all of its rights and reme­dies un­der the agree­ment and the Let­ter Agree­ment and un­der ap­plic­a­ble law or in eq­ui­ty in­clud­ing, with­out lim­i­ta­tion, the right to de­mand per­for­mance by CAL and the T&T Gov­ern­ment of all oblig­a­tions and to seek dam­ages." Lalor's let­ter was ac­com­pa­nied by a let­ter from Fi­nan­cial Sec­re­tary Wes­ley Hugh­es.

Point­ing out that Air Ja­maica and the Ja­maican Gov­ern­ment were ready, Hugh­es let­ter con­clud­ed: "IN AC­COR­DANCE with the said pro­vi­sions of the Agree­ment Hold­ings, Air Ja­maica and the Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica now re­quire you to com­plete the same with­in 14 days from the date here­of. AND TAKE FUR­THER NO­TICE that if you fail to com­plete the same with­in the afore­said 14 days, you will be in de­fault of your oblig­a­tions un­der the said Agree­ment and the said Hold­ings, Air Ja­maica and Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica will can­cel and forego their oblig­a­tions un­der the said Agree­ment and seek such re­lief as they may be en­ti­tled pur­suant to the pro­vi­sions of the Agree­ment."

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Lalor said there was no threat in­volved and he per­son­al­ly be­lieved the air­line's uni­fi­ca­tion will be of great val­ue to the Caribbean. On their end, Lalor said, they were aware that T&T was not ready. "The soon­er the doc­u­men­ta­tion is com­plet­ed, the bet­ter for every­body," he said. Lalor dis­missed doubts that CAL would not fol­low through on the deal. "It's their right to look at the deal," he said. If CAL doesn't fol­low through with the deal, Lalor said: "That's an­oth­er sto­ry. One would have to re-cal­i­brate strokes."

Lalor is the Ja­maican Gov­ern­ment's pick to sit on the CAL board. As part of the agree­ment, an ex­ist­ing mem­ber of the CAL board will have to ex­it to make space for him. CAL ac­quired Air Ja­maica's routes and air­craft in May 2010. The Ja­maican Gov­ern­ment ab­sorbed AJ's US$1.5 bil­lion debt and CAL put for­ward launch cap­i­tal of US$50 mil­lion. The one-year Share­hold­ers Agree­ment ex­pired on April 30.