Future of Caribbean Airlines

[Wraith King]

did they need all those workers from the border closure to now? if they didnt, then they should have cut that staff, at least furloughed them, until things pick back up.

Then you would have people whining, calling them evil for cutting peoples jobs in the midst of a pandemic and rolling lockdowns. They went the route of doing the opposite even though it costed a great deal of money, because the government was footing the bill.

i can remember them getting subsidised for the lock down, and i said to let it bounce its losses adn shut down. then was told that we have to give them money to maintain routes. my argument is that we not going to fly any where any time soon so might as well ground the fleet and let some other airline take up the slack, or at least trim every one except maintenance to do normal down maintenance.
when things pick back up, then try to regain the routes.

They did get bailed out by the government actually, government even took up the debts that CAL was unable to repay because there was no revenue.

if u could shut down petrotrin cause its a cash flow problem, then shut this one down too.

Those 2 things are not even close to being the same situation. The CAL situation over the past year was nothing compared to the debt + bleeding of money by Petrotrin on an annual basis. There was a clear future for CAL's business once borders could be reopened (remember, their losses over the past year was solely because of covid), meanwhile there was no future for petrotrin, the way it was being ran - it was absolutely unsustainable and almost criminal that it was allowed to exist for that long in that state.

And my own personal opinion: CAL is one of those things we absolutely cannot allow to go out of business, regardless of how much corruption it has at the moment

Who's that Pokemon?

[Penguin]

I hope CAL does not make the same mistake AA made in underestimating future demand for air travel when our border reopens.

Demand within the Caribbean will be lower for sure. The flights to the US and Canada will be back to normal quite quickly, but CAL's cash cow was Guyana and now with so many other competing airlines there that market buss.

CAL management know what to expect, demand for international travel will take a while before it get backs to previous levels.

Just having to get PCR tests, and vaccination, quarantine etcs is a huge deterrent.

[i_code_and_stuff]

I don't think this GORTT gives a damn.

To clarify, I agree in that I don't think they give a damn about what people say about CAL cutting jobs, but i think they do give a damn about whether or not CAL sinks. I'll go a step further and say thats probably the only reason that theyre opening the borders, meaning that they can no longer sustain CAL and are willing to accept the risk of an open border if it means that CAL doesnt go out of business.

[pugboy]

wonder if them employees getting continued free travel

[MaxPower]

wonder if them employees getting continued free travel

Suspended until further notice

[MaxPower]

Hope they LIFO when they retrench.

Well,

LIFO is based on seniority as you know.

Bear in mind that CAL has both an ATR (entry level) and 737 fleet. But guess what, almost every single First Officer on the ATR is junior to those on the 737, and some Captains as well.

With the restructuring and downsizing, the ATR continues to fly and the 737 fleet is reduced.

So if LIFO is done by seniority, then logically, the green selfie-taking ATR First Officers should go home and the 737 First Officers should be retrained on the ATR. You just cannot have a junior pilot flying and a senior man at home.

But, it costs money to train a 737 pilot back on the ATR.

CAL can easily use the pandemic as an excuse and execute LIFO by fleet but they can be taken to court as it is a breech of their Collect Agreement.

Will see how it goes.

I honestly think that CAL would be unable to handle the demand for travel and upsize faster than expected. The Govt will once again step in and bail them out with the help of their beloved tax payers.

Many WANT the Govt to issue another “loan” so they can fill their pockets yet again until the cycle is restarted again.

[pugboy]

once a flight leaves, empty seats are lost money tho

wonder if them employees getting continued free travel

Suspended until further notice

[sMASH]

at the point in time borders closed, there was no way to know how long air travel would remain low. given the virus, past pandemics, and the rate of vaccine development, u were looking at 2 years minimum.

seems a reasonable time to subsist the whole company, only to fire them two weeks before they reopen the borders.

[AlphaMan]

Where all these workers gonna get employed now?

[Gladiator]

How hard would it be to diversify part of CAL into a regional skybox company. Just a thought. They done have the pilots, the planes, the logistical workers and the CSRs... could be a lifeline till things go back to normal.

[DMan7]

How hard would it be to diversify part of CAL into a regional skybox company. Just a thought. They done have the pilots, the planes, the logistical workers and the CSRs... could be a lifeline till things go back to normal.

Why don't they get REALLY innovative and have CAL be a "sky" restaurant so people can dine while in the air?

[MaxPower]

How hard would it be to diversify part of CAL into a regional skybox company. Just a thought. They done have the pilots, the planes, the logistical workers and the CSRs... could be a lifeline till things go back to normal.

Gladman,

Excellent thinking.

Unfortunately i cannot say the same for those that made the decision to discontinue the two 767s they had.

Another airline is actually using them for cargo and making a mint.

They are doing some cargo though with the current equipment.

[pugboy]

Cargo is a diff kettle of fish though.
Totally diff set of staffing and operations

[Dohplaydat]

How hard would it be to diversify part of CAL into a regional skybox company. Just a thought. They done have the pilots, the planes, the logistical workers and the CSRs... could be a lifeline till things go back to normal.

CAL was planning to offer skybox services pretty sure they'll do it still it's just delayed.

[AlphaMan]

The 450 Job losses gonna cost tax payers 110 Million. I'm sure their friends and financiers getting the majority of that.

[MaxPower]

The 450 Job losses gonna cost tax payers 110 Million. I'm sure their friends and financiers getting the majority of that.

Correct, and also additional funding when CAL can show efficiency and a profit projection as indicated by the Minister of Finance.

[sMASH]

when the borders reopen, ent they would have to rehire a lot of them as the business ramps up?

[daring dragoon]

everybody talking about CAL everyone stop talking about covid and the 80 vials of vaccine and the USA blank we for vaccine. 2 months of lockdown once the delta + variant reach.

[AlphaMan]

everybody talking about CAL everyone stop talking about covid and the 80 vials of vaccine and the USA blank we for vaccine. 2 months of lockdown once the delta + variant reach.

We would be dead before that from mental anxiety and hunger.

[MaxPower]

everybody talking about CAL everyone stop talking about covid and the 80 vials of vaccine and the USA blank we for vaccine. 2 months of lockdown once the delta + variant reach.

Yeh bro,

Just imagine what going to happen for Carnival.

Or when malls, beaches, bars and KFC open.

[daring dragoon]

The 450 Job losses gonna cost tax payers 110 Million. I'm sure their friends and financiers getting the majority of that.

Correct, and also additional funding when CAL can show efficiency and a profit projection as indicated by the Minister of Finance.

every man taking home $245000.00. most of we taking 2 years to make that.

[MaxPower]

The 450 Job losses gonna cost tax payers 110 Million. I'm sure their friends and financiers getting the majority of that.

Correct, and also additional funding when CAL can show efficiency and a profit projection as indicated by the Minister of Finance.

every man taking home $245000.00. most of we taking 2 years to make that.

Every man who what?

Na man, not every man. All depends on your base salary and years of service.

[daring dragoon]

110 million divided between the 450 persons to be retrenched is about $245000.00 a person. they say it will be persons from the routes that CAL will drop and the planes that they will no longer need. so its persons at ticket counters, pilots, host and hostess, mechanics, handlers, cleaners, supervisors, managers and some might not be locals as the ticket counter in lets say mexico might be manned by mexicans and not trinis. some will collect 7 digits some 6 digits and some 5 digits but at least they get something.

i heard about a Chinese owner of a big computer company in pos retrenched all staff after his wife caught him cheating and she was majority share holder and that man do all that he do and never paid his staff their severance up to this day. with a name like lee kung no court or bailiff were able to touch him.

[hover11]

No accountability and transparency of taxpayers money how it is used and when it is used, but when for the same public servants to get back what they put into the taxpaying system, WHERE THE BACKPAY, all of a sudden no money for public servants, the government cannot afford it, how does the government afford millions of taxpayers money to bail out CAL. when they already got millions of taxpayers money last year, where the millions od taxpayers money went last year?

[MaxPower]

110 million divided between the 450 persons to be retrenched is about $245000.00 a person.

You forget to mention how much to fill the other pockets.

[sMASH]

avrage, but i bet, u will hear more bout 50k take homes. cause there will be a few 500k aadn 1m take homes.

same ting went on in petrotrin, the put out some ludicrously high average figures, when the vast majority would have been below that, leaving the top and middle to get some massive payouts from the big severance allowance.

[Habit7]

I really don't understand the beat up about this. Before covid, CAL was a success story in properly turning it around from losses to profit and new routes. Plus acquiring new aircraft. Every airline in the world got negatively affected by covid. The US already bailed out their carriers. LIAT has fired nearly everybody and there is nothing to get. IATA predicting recovery in quite 2023.

For the company to survive, they don't need the same staff they had when they were bigger than ever. They must cut.

[zoom rader]

I really don't understand the beat up about this. Before covid, CAL was a success story in properly turning it around from losses to profit and new routes. Plus acquiring new aircraft. Every airline in the world got negatively affected by covid. The US already bailed out their carriers. LIAT has fired nearly everybody and there is nothing to get. IATA predicting recovery in quite 2023.

For the company to survive, they don't need the same staff they had when they were bigger than ever. They must cut.

Its been proven time and time again that the red government are not very good at running a business far less for running a country .

[sMASH]

the big beat up is, america is suffering right now from labor shortages, due to furlough.
and they furloughed since last year, cause they knew they couldnt afford to keep staff for so long with little business.


american airlines have TOO many persons wanting to fly. and have to cancel due to lack of staff.
the world economy is reopening NOWW, and we would not be far behind according to the PM himself.

so all the talk that came before that they couldnt send home the workers cause they needed them was rubbish.
cause u will need them in the coming months, NOT QUITE NEXT YEAR, and they looking to sever them not even furlough.



same way how we say they was gonna shut down petrotrin and sell it out, and we get pushback that was lie, it got shut down and parts out, and put up the refinery for sale.


same thign with this. if any thing, put them of half salary till they need them back to operate. paying out 110m just to rehire them a couple mths later, seems like an underhanded unofficial offical way to give a bonus package.

[sMASH]

I really don't understand the beat up about this. Before covid, CAL was a success story in properly turning it around from losses to profit and new routes. Plus acquiring new aircraft. Every airline in the world got negatively affected by covid. The US already bailed out their carriers. LIAT has fired nearly everybody and there is nothing to get. IATA predicting recovery in quite 2023.

For the company to survive, they don't need the same staff they had when they were bigger than ever. They must cut.

Its been proven time and time again that the red government are not very good at running a business far less for running a country .

put pnm to run a box cart, it will go UP de hill and loss the race.

covax was a reallll shining success. compared to the rest of caricom.