PRIME Minister Portia Simpson Miller says she will be requesting that Air Jamaica and Virgin bosses meet with Jamaicans in the United Kingdom (UK) who have raised concerns regarding the recently announced code-share agreement between the national carrier and Virgin Atlantic.

In her first public comment on the recent sale of Air Jamaica’s London route to Virgin, Simpson Miller said she will be directing those responsible for the airline, as well as the operators of Virgin, to meet with Jamaicans in the United Kingdom to outline the new code-share arrangement.

“They must talk to you and listen to what you expect of the new service which will begin in October 2007,” the prime minister told the audience at a community awards function in Birmingham on Sunday.

She told the UK-based Jamaicans that in taking the decision to cease operating, the Jamaica-London route later this year, Air Jamaica’s management took a decision to cut their losses, amounting to £14 million a year.

“Fourteen million pounds could build a few schools and provide miles of new water supply line in Jamaica,” she said.

Acknowledging that she knew how Jamaicans in the UK felt about the change in the arrangements for flying between London and Kingston, Simpson Miller said the London route had become an extremely difficult one for a small airline to maintain.

“All of us have a special pride when our own aircraft is available to us to travel across the Atlantic. Some of you have told me that you never fly to Jamaica, at least not for the past 10 years or more, on any plane but an Air Jamaica plane,” she said.

“We appreciate your loyalty and we appreciate your feelings about your national carrier,” she added.