JALPA yes, CAL no!

THE EDITOR, Sir:

I am calling on all Jamaicans to rally behind the Jamaican Airline Pilots' Association (JALPA) and staff who are trying to buy out Air Jamaica.

Air Jamaica belongs to the people of Jamaica and not Trinidad, so if the Jamaican Government should go ahead and sell the airline to Caribbean Airlines (CAL), that would be the end of Air Jamaica.

Protect jobs

You need to protect jobs, and that will not happen if CAL purchases the airline. This will be devastating for the Jamaican tourism product. Mr Prime Minister Bruce Golding, please listen to the people on the ground, for these are the same people who voted for your government. There are ways forward without including CAL in the agreement, but you must be able to trust your own before trusting strangers who don't care for your tourism product. It is only for the money and not brotherhood.

Trinidad does not have a tourism industry, and CAL wants to control the aviation sector in the Caribbean. The government and people of Trinidad could not run British West Indies Airways successfully over the 40 years-plus, what makes you think that they would be able to run Air Jamaica and LIAT successfully? To the tourism players, don't allow this to happen.

I am, etc.,

Philip Simmons

Barbadian