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AEROTEL salutes longest-serving staff at 40th anniversary banquet

Published:Saturday | June 15, 2019 | 12:08 AM
AEROTEL’s longest-serving staff member, Rowell Hall (left), accepts a plaque from Minister of Transport Robert Montague in recognition of his 30 years of service to the company.
AEROTEL’s longest-serving staff member, Rowell Hall (left), accepts a plaque from Minister of Transport Robert Montague in recognition of his 30 years of service to the company.

Aeronautical Telecommunications Limited (AEROTEL) is celebrating 40 years of operation. These celebrations culminated in the company’s long-service awards and banquet held recently at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston.

In the presence of 250 persons, including Minister of Transport Robert Montague and members of the board of directors for both AEROTEL and its parent company, the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, 41 of the company’s staff complement were recognised for 10 or more years of loyal service.

The most distinguished of them, Rowel Hall, who is AEROTEL’s operations manager for the Kingston region, received the top honour for his service to the company for 30 years.

“Being the longest-serving member of staff, I can safely say that AEROTEL is destined to achieve greatly, and I am almost certain that AEROTEL will continue for another 40 years. We will stay at cruising altitude for a while longer, certainly not ready to engage our landing gear,” Hall said.

Staying true to their 40th anniversary theme of being a key player in the aviation industry, the banquet featured mock air hostesses and in-flight passenger messages which beckoned to and instructed guests throughout the night.

Guests were taken on an experience designed to reflect a safe airplane journey, which is the end result of the crucial work carried out by AEROTEL’s engineers.

Additionally, a number of the engineers who maintain equipment used by air-traffic controllers and other key personnel in the aviation industry were recognised for their long service in what is arguably the most pivotal role in the company.

Hall, who has previously touted the importance of AEROTEL and its engineers, or technicians, as they are called, said that he believes their jobs are extremely important.

“The idea is for them to perform at that level where our clients won’t have to look left or look right and to perform at the level where risk is really out of it. We reduce risk as much as possible because the aviation industry is an industry wherein a simple mistake can cause you a lot of problems,” Hall said.

AEROTEL board chairman, Marc Ramsay, reminded everyone that their business is one in which comfort can be dangerous. “We must always be in a constant state of monitoring and improvement,” he said.

AEROTEL supports the air traffic-management systems and the communication, navigation and surveillance facilities that help to keep the aviation industry safe.