By Janet Silvera, Freelance Writer 
THE COUNTRY'S national airline, Air Jamaica, has been forced to cancel about 70 per cent of its United States-bound flights on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Of the more than 60 scheduled flights operated by the airline daily (including those through Montego Bay), only 10 flights will touch down on U.S. soil today.
Less than two weeks ago, the airline's Senior Vice-President of Industry Affairs, William Rodgers, told The Gleaner that only 23 flights would be cancelled as a result of severely low bookings. However, on the anniversary of the U.S. attacks, the number of flights cancelled has climbed to 43.
The new numbers were confirmed by Sandrea Falconer, Air Jamaica's Director of Communications, who told The Gleaner, "When we looked at the forward booking, the numbers weren't good, so we decided to pull down flights from the schedule." She said two New York; a consolidated Philadelphia/Baltimore flight, two Atlanta, one Los Angeles, two Ft. Lauderdale and two Miami flights were the only ones that would operate into the U.S. today.
And although the airline was set to return to normality by tomorrow afternoon, there was no consolation that business would pick up for them or a number of hotels now running at lows of 30-40 per cent occupancy or transportation companies with parked vehicles, within the next two months.
"September signals despair and gloom for the tourist industry, but the month of October is just as bad and to a lesser extent November does not look good either," says Godfrey Dyer, Area Chapter Chairman of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association.
Mr. Dyer also predicted that the hotels now running such low occupancy levels would have to rotate staff during September and October.
However, Air Jamaica's Senior Vice-President of Marketing, Allen Chastanet, says that although they can't change what is happening around them, "we will remain aggressive in the marketplace".
Air Jamaica employs more than 2,600 persons both locally and overseas and since the events of September 11, none of its staff has been laid off.
