By George Alleyne, newsday.co.tt
December 20 2006
The increasing change in carrier preference in the international transport industry by passengers over the past decade and a half, spurred on by the horrendous events of September 11, 2001, along with the seeming reluctance of trade unions representing BWIA workers to appreciate this is the principal reason why BWIA had to be closed down and replaced with Caribbean Airlines.
The irony of the carrier preference change is that it was a reversal of the immediate post war development in international travel when there was a pronounced shift from passenger ships and cruise liners to airplanes. The accent then was on getting from one point to another as quickly as possible, along with shippers having their cargoes moved speedily.
Indeed, at the time, business was expanding so rapidly for example for BWIA, as it was for other air carriers, that the airline acquired five Vickers Viking and three Dakota aircraft in 1949. In addition, the acquisition of four Vickers Viscount jet prop planes six years later, in 1955, in affording even greater speed and with it appreciably shorter flying times continued the process of attracting increasing passenger traffic at the expense of ships.
However, with Trinbagonians and other Caribbean people living longer, due to advances in medicine and with it an increase in their earning power there was a switch to more leisurely travel and the attraction to the once more increasing in popularity cruise ships and all inclusive travel.
The tragic events of September 11, 2001 when suicide teams hijacked two aircraft and rammed them into New York’s landmark World Trade Center, demolishing it, raised uncomfortable questions of the possibility of other commercial aircraft being hijacked. The incident adversely affected air passenger travel and some international airlines, after experiencing sharply dwindling revenues, were forced to cease operations.
Several others cut back on air and ground staff as well as fares, inflight meals and drinks as they sought to grapple with the reality of the vastly changed economics of the airline industry. Another negative factor in the equation was the issue of the rising cost of aviation fuel, a natural though vexing outcome of the rapidly growing price for crude on the international market. At BWIA, however, there was an almost stubborn resistance to any cut in the airline’s workforce.
Charter proliferation had been another factor, even before September 11, which had impacted negatively on BWIA’s balance sheet. In turn, there was the continuing disinclination of governments of member states of the Caribbean Community of Nations (Caricom) to recognise BWIA as the regional air carrier and to acquire equity in the airline. And this, even though from November 27, 1940 when Captain Lowell Yerex established BWIA with a Lockheed Lodestar UPTAE; throughout World War II and the formation of Carifta and later Caricom, BWIA had been the region’s principal air transportation internal and external link.
BWIA has always been important to the region. A major point in demonstrating this was that when the airline was closed down, briefly, some three decades ago following on a reported withdrawal of enthusiasm by the majority of pilots, in addition to the difficulty experienced by all too many persons in the region in obtaining ready passages, air passenger fares and freight costs of most of the other airlines serving the region rose sharply.
An ongoing study should be conducted on both the economic viability of various routes and the type of aircraft best suited, not only to the lifting of passengers but to that of air freighting. In turn, emphasis should be placed on the selection of one type of aircraft as far as is reasonably possible. This would facilitate inventory and purchasing.
Government, which has the majority shareholding in BWIA, following on its assumption of debts incurred by the airline, is today the sole owner of the successor Caribbean Airlines which officially takes over from BWIA and to the skies on January 1, 2007. While Antigua, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana and St Lucia have, in the past, commented favourably on BWIA’s contribution to the development of their tourist industry and have profited from this air link, this, is not enough. There is need for the region to consider, and seriously, the establishment of a single regional airline.
Why not have a single regional carrier with one set of overheads rather than several carriers competing one with the other? The already high fuel costs which threaten to become increasingly higher in the next five to ten years are eating away into earnings. In addition, charter proliferation will grow, not diminish.
A merry, safe and enjoyable Christmas to all of my readers.
http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,49458.html
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.”
This quote from Romeo and Juliet could apply to BWIA or perhaps altered to say “something rotten by any other word would smell just as stink.”
Changing the name of the National Carrier is in effect all thay they are doing. It’s more or less the same staff they’re keeping on and the same owners and the same don’t-give-a-damn government worker mentality.
Re: Single regional airline?
http://www.trinidadandtobagonews.com/blog/?p=143
Thanks for the history lesson on the airline business in the region.
Came across your site just surfing/searching, on a whim, for the world’s safest airline and ended up following links related to BWIA.
I’m a proud Trini living abroad, 30+ years but haven’t travelled with BWIA since ’75. But for a small regional airline it has had an impressive service record while in operation. (BTW, Whatever became of PanAm Airlines?
Bewee easily rolls off the tongue and invokes a proud British heritage. Caribbean Airlines, I’m assuming, speaks to regional cohesion and inclusiveness of the potential benefits to all in the region.
That’s to say, I enjoyed and appreciated your analysis of the industry and potential outcomes if narrow nationalistic views continue to drive the debate as it apparently been going. From what I make of one of your points, regional economic benefits should outweigh the tendency toward political/cultural myopia.
Lastly, to comment on:
_____________________
““What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other word would smell as sweet.”
Changing the name of the National Carrier is in effect all thay they are doing. It’s more or less the same staff they’re keeping on and the same owners and the same don’t-give-a-damn government worker mentality.”
_____________________
Quite true.
As I said at the start (up above) … Trini, and proud. Haven’t travelled to Trinidad since ’75. My passport now says Canadian. Trinbagoian just doesn’t roll off this trini’s tongue. No more than Afro-Canadian or Canadian-Trinidian/West-Indian, etc, etc. So, yes, to call a rose
by any other word would not make it any less a ‘rose’
CARICOM,Carifta, NAFTA, Free-Trade, Globalisation, The EURO, Economic Unions etc are all attempts to create economic trade blocks that benefit the regional players; and yes, some will benefit more than others. That reality.
Where would Britain be today if it had not seen the writings on the wall and not become a member of the European Union?
The Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, North and Central American and Pacific Rim nations are all clustering inward toward economic isolation with respect to trade even as the world explodes outward toward globalisation.
And through all this it seems to me that the leaders of the Caribbean/West-Indian region are navel-gazing, nit-picking or are in some political snit over whether a Regional Air/Trade route should be based in Trinidad and anchored by a decades old and established service such as Bewee.
Obviously, to deny that link exists as a regional strength – that BWIA or Caribbean Airlines represents the best airline hub in the region, as stepping off stone to the other trade blocks blocks around the globe – could amount to regional economic suicide in the global economy of the 21st century.
Nice Blog!
Happy New Year!