PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC):

A trade union representing workers at the cash-strapped state-owned national airline, BWIA, says it will be closed down by year-end and relaunched as a new entity called 'Caribbean Airlines'.

President of the Aviation Communication and Allied Workers, Curtis John, said that the new airline had already been registered.

"We have not received official information from the company, but we have received information that BWIA would be shut down and a new airline would take its place," John said.

But BWIA's Corporate Communications Manager Dionne Ligoure said she had no information regarding the airline's closure.

John said the company was also undertaking a number of projects including training of a new air service company to take over some of the functions now being performed by BWIA employees.