The Editor, Sir:

Collin Hutchinson, in his letter that you published on January 16, made suggestions to Air Jamaica's (AJ) management that doubtless are worthy of their consideration.

Mr. Hutchinson's expertise appears to be on the technical side, based on his recommendations, inter alia, that AJ go with the A319 over the 737-300.

Because my area of expertise is financial, I am concerned to know whether AJ buys, outright, its fleet of planes. Because if it does, it should immediately switch to a sale/leaseback financial model. This will allow AJ to generate immediate cash flow to meet current and future operational needs while retaining depreciation write-off of the leased asset.

In order to further strengthen AJ's balance sheet, the Government needs to provide the airline with access to the Venezuela PetroCaribe fund solely for subsidising its purchase of fuel for the airline.

This opens up the possibility to enter into forward contracts for this same purpose, a strategy that is employed by other successful airlines like Southwest here in Texas.

I am, etc.,

ERROL WILLIAMS

errol6185@aol.com

Houston, Texas

Via Go-Jamaica