MIAMI, FL -- Chief Executive Officer of Air Jamaica, Michael Conway, is insisting the disagreement that led to one of the company’s planes being seized in Miami Wednesday has been resolved.
His comments came a day after one of the carrier’s leased planes, was detained by agents from the International Lease Financing Corporation in a bid to collect on a US$7-million debt. The plane was reportedly seized as passengers waited to fly out on the carrier to Jamaica. Conway Wednesday night blamed the seizure on “a number of contractual disputes.”
But yesterday he said he has received support from Air Jamaica’s Chairman, O.K. Melhado, that other aircrafts will not be seized.
The carrier continues to grapple with huge losses in an era where there has been much talk of a regional airline as a solution to the high cost of running a carrier. Air Jamaica losses last year was put at US$136 million. The Jamaica government's is insisting it can only commit US$30 million annually to the national carrier and is calling for a new business plan that is aimed at downsizing and eliminating unprofitable routes.
ILFC is the international market leader in the leasing and remarketing of advanced technology commercial jet aircraft to airlines around the world. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of American International Group, Inc., owns a portfolio valued at more than $40 billion, consisting of more than 800 jet aircraft.
