By Andrew Green, Staff Reporter 
Dyer
THE HOTELIERS have come out solidly behind Air Jamaica, but The Financial Gleaner found little consensus about how the airline should be treated.
Its chief executive officer, Christopher Zacca, has announced a plan to cut costs by US$50 million (J$3.1 billion) annually, but the most recent information is that Air Jamaica has lost more than J$34 billion since its privatisation in 1994. The massive losses, coming against the background of the country's painful budget balancing plan, has stirred public debate about the future of the airline.
"There is no question that Jamaica needs Air Jamaica," said Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association president, Godfrey Dyer. At a press conference held at the JHTA headquarters in St. Andrew on Wednesday, he called on the nation to support the beleaguered carrier. Mr. Dyer received the full backing of the other JHTA executives, with Camille Needham, the executive director, describing the airline as "our security blanket."
Air Jamaica transports 51 per cent of all travellers to the island, Mr. Dyer said. With 340 flights per week across 25 destinations, the airline provides critical airlift to support tourism. It also provides the industry with a margin of safety in a crisis situation such as that which occurred after Hurricane Ivan when other carriers cut their flights to the island, he said. In addition Mr. Dyer said, "This happened during the 1970s."
Like the smaller tourism destinations of the Eastern Caribbean, he said the country would be at the mercy of international carriers without the leverage that a national airline offers.
Winston Dear, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry, disagreed.
"Jamaica is a major tourist destination," Mr. Dear said. "We would not die if Air Jamaica was to go under."
If the $34 billion lost by the airline had been pumped into the tourism industry, both the industry and Jamaica would be better off, he said.
"I don't want the airline shut down," he said, "but there has to be a limit."
The huge debt is unacceptable, he said. "Government should act as a regulator and get out of the airline business."
Economist Omri Evans said a cost-benefit analysis needs to be done to determine whether the benefits of the airline outweigh its costs.
"If costs outrun the benefits, then it makes no sense to keep it," Dr. Evans said. "Otherwise restructure it by cutting the marginal routes and overhead costs."
But to maintain tourism as the lead sector in economy, "you cannot do that without your own airline," Dr. Evans said.
"The entire Air Jamaica issue has created discussion but not much hard information," said Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) president, Beverly Lopez. "To assess it we need greater intelligence in looking at what has happened."
Critical issues such as the Sabre Airline Solutions report to help stabilise the carrier have not been generally circulated, Mrs. Lopez said. More information needs to be provided before the PSOJ could take a position on the future of the airline.
The financial statements of the airline have not been made public because Air Jamaica Limited is a private company, Senator Burchell Whiteman told the Senate in November. On the basis of the Government's 25 per cent shareholding, he said it had no responsibility to make public the financial statements of Air Jamaica.
"We wave met with the Air Jamaica team," Mrs. Lopez said. After some preliminary talks, she said, "We have an agreement for teams from the PSOJ and Air Jamaica to meet to get a better grasp of the situation."
