- WINSTON SILL/FREELANCE PHOTOGRAPHER
The Hon. Gordon 'Butch' Stewart, O.J.Barbara Ellington, Senior Gleaner Writer
THERE HAVE been wide-ranging views about the reasons behind the termination of the contract between Air Jamaica Acquisition Group and Gordon Butch Stewart over the last seven months. In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner, Mr. Stewart spoke to many of the unanswered questions and stressed that the model on which the airline was run under his watch, was the most compatible for the country, giving great identity to service and quality.
"We took an airline that was run down, had very old planes and extraordinarily high lease costs. It had a very poor image and we turned into a product that had the newest fleet flying the Caribbean and even the pilots had to be retrained on the new technology," he said.
He further stated that maintenance staff had to be retrained and the airline began to pioneer new routes. He cited London as the most costly route in 1998, with only three flights weekly, but which is the most profitable today. Fort Lauderdale was another route developed quickly.
While admitting that there has been enormous focus on the losses, Mr. Stewart cited the category two status imposed by the United States aviation authorities and 9/11 as being the two factors that caused the massive losses.
"I will state categorically that I did nothing with Air Jamaica that was in any way underhanded and that the other hotels in Jamaica did not get equal opportunity for. I never got anything from Air Jamaica. I had no salary, nor have they ever paid for anything other than the odd meal for me.
"I gave to Air Jamaica my money, top personnel, my own plane was flown hundreds of times on its behalf without charge, and my boat, 'Lady Sandals' was used on its behalf", Mr. Stewart said.
He said there were downsides for persons in his position
when things go wrong and the beleaguered airline, being such a political organisation, attracted several accusations, including the absurd.
"They accused us of not having proper communication equipment and having to use cellphones that was absurd."
However, Mr. Stewart reiterated that Air Jamaica became Jamaica's best ambassador. Manchester and London lost money initially, but loads became good and yields got better.
"We left behind US$800m ($49.6 billion) worth of developed routes; we left behind a fortune in trained personnel; we left behind the proudest and newest fleet in the skies; we were the most creative from flying chef to champagne flights, to beach-side check-in. The airline developed a confidence that made Americans use it as if it were their own," Mr. Stewart said.
He said some people made absurd statements about reckless management, but it was post-9/11 management strategies that made them save rather than lose more money.
B.E. How did you feel about the termination of your relationship with the airline then versus now that some time has passed?
GBS: We give up the steward-ship because the horrendous costs involved in running were unaffordable as a private company.
Delta Airlines lost US$5.2 billion last year, they had several shareholders. Air Jamaica had one main shareholder me. There will be numbers to show that it was an incredible investment for Jamaica. We flew the economy of Jamaica from negative to positive. People have been arguing about the losses without investigating the facts.
B.E. But how do you feel now, are you bitter?
GBS. Not at all, I gave up 10 years for Air Jamaica. It took up 60 per cent of my time. It's hard for people to do that for their country and not steal and I defy anyone to come with anything that I did unethically or fraudulently. I enjoyed seeing the successful role it played and we almost took over the tourist board's role. We had an important code share with Delta Airlines because of our reliability.
B.E. How would you respond to the view that the Jamaican taxpayer was taken for a ride by the debt-plagued airline?
GBS. Those persons have not done any research or anything to evaluate what the contribution on the other side is. I am not saying everything was perfect, but it was not reckless. We used tremendous foresight and creativity market/management skills, aviation knowledge and, as a result, many of the senior people we had are now in senior positions with international airlines.
B.E. Do you think you were put in an unfair position when you took it over?
GBS. Not at all - many tried to buy it and failed and the Government asked me to step in. I took the challenge. It's a complex business and the evaluation of Air Jamaica by the Jamaican media has been superficial. No one has done the research or made the comparison of that period with world conditions. It was easier to respond to the new management's talk about losses. Plus, the people there now are the same we took on.
B.E. Any advice for them?
GBS. No, but I'll say that the hub that was never properly understood afforded the airline flying time without which they won't make ends meet. No airline has been downsized into profit; you have overheads that if you don't keep flying into profits, don't change. Less flying means less profit. American Airlines just made its first profit last quarter since 2000.
People talk about low cost carriers such as Southwest but they don't cross borders. Jet Blue has only flown to Puerto Rico, Aruba and Nassau and those destinations have no foreign customs/immigration to deal with.
Jamaica has a background of crime and we had to structure the airline to show the country's positive qualities and re-imaging. Our reliability challenged other first world airlines.
Every airline that crossed borders lost fortunes after 9/11. The Far East recovered quickest but most of our routes were North American.
B.E. Divestment will come again, what terms should be in place so that the new operators don't end up in the same place as you 10 years down the road?
GBS. They have to restrain themselves and not do some of the things we did. Pilots never used to pay much taxes; we had to gross up their salaries in order to pay what was not paid before. Landing fees were radically increased; the airports had inefficiencies such as having to run the turbines on the plane for the air conditioners while on the ramp. We still don't have radar which allows you to fly straighter lines and save up to $5 million year.
This is a warning - Air Jamaica has lost critical mass. It did not have to go down to 15 planes - they need to go up to 27.
In the cycle of expansion that's optimum, and as you get into better times for travel in this part of the world, the airline will be able to make money. Downsizing into profit is impossible. It's a pipe dream. We have lost our main market and Jamaicans are fleeing to other carriers and we have to motivate our own nationals who are now fleeing to the competition. I'm not saying this critically. These are facts I learnt the hard way. The hub, code share, customer loyalty and being on time are critical.
Those who criticised the meals made no sense; that marketing tool was only two per cent of the cost. We flew Jamaican hospitality and beauty.
B.E. What about the future of Air Jamaica Express?
GBS. It's leased to Air Jamaica now and I will not say anything further on that.
(See more with Mr. Stewart in tomorrow's Monday Business section)
