At least 150 Caribbean Airlines employees are to be sent home as of April 30, 45 in Montego Bay, St James and more than 100 in Kingston.
The ripple effect could see some 300 people out of a job, highly placed sources close to the airline which bought the country’s former national carrier, Air Jamaica, told The Gleaner.
In a release to the media late yesterday, CAL confirmed that its Airport Customer Service operations, based in Kingston and Montego Bay, will be outsourced to a third party service provider.
The Gleaner understands that the third party provider is a Barbados-based organisation.
The massive reduction in staff comes on the heels of plans by the airline to reduce its Montego Bay to Philadelphia route to four trips per week, as of the end of March, and its Fort Lauderdale flights to Kingston to two daily, down from three.
More reductions in canada
Further reductions are expected in Toronto, once the Canadian company Westjet commences its service.
Commenting on its latest move, the airline’s acting chief executive officer, Robert Corbie stated: “Since the integration of the Air Jamaica and Caribbean Airlines brands, the airline continues to streamline its processes to ensure it continues to improve cost efficiency in line with strategic objectives.”
He said in order to achieve this, the airline has taken into account several components of its operations including, but not limited to, lowering costs with the primary focus of improving the quality of service offered to its passengers.
“Caribbean Airlines will provide and assist, where feasible, in obtaining alternate employment for persons affected by this process and employees will be remunerated in accordance with industrial practice,” he said, adding that there was a commitment to providing a quality service.
“We are confident that this decision will impact positively on our operations, as we will emerge even stronger as a leader in regional aviation.”
He said Caribbean Airlines expects to continue normal business operations throughout the reorganisation process and reassures the public that this action should not affect its operations as all flight schedules and reservations remain intact throughout the Caribbean Airlines and Air Jamaica networks.
Caribbean Airlines officially took over the operations of the Air Jamaica brand in May 2010 and has revitalised the Air Jamaica product by moving from the aged Airbus fleet to a young Boeing 737-800 fleet of aircraft. Since the integration of Air Jamaica into the Caribbean Airlines network, the Jamaican brand has also seen a significant improvement in on-time performance and in-flight experience.
Caribbean Airlines currently operates under the vision of Two Brands, One Airline.
janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com
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