Air J moves to address lost, delayed luggage issue
AIR Jamaica promised yesterday that lost and delayed luggage should be addressed in time for Christmas.
According to the airline’s CEO, Mike Conway, the company will be receiving its first set of 757 aeroplanes, which has the capacity to transport more cargo, and should address the national airline’s delay baggage problem.
Conway said this fleet of aircraft will also be used to make the national carrier’s debut into the South American market next year.
“With the 757 we will be able to offer a much better service because it will be absolutely rare that we ever leave a bag behind with that aircraft,” he said.
He explained that during the peak summer and Christmas holidays, with a A321 aircraft which currently flies some routes, it was a common occurrence for flights to Jamaica to leave more than 100 bags behind because of payload restrictions.
According to Conway, the 757 not only has 30 per cent more non-stop range than the A321, but more than 30 per cent more payload capability in the amount of baggage it can take.
“It is not so much the space but the power thrust that you need to lift the weight and these airplanes have much more higher thrust engines,” Conway later told the Observer.
“We will not have that problem on the 757 and we will have twice the number of business class seats on that airplane,” he added.
Conway, who was addressing travel agents at the company’s annual travel agency award, announced that discussions were currently underway with a number of cities and national carriers in South America to build partnerships.
“At this time it is too premature to say which city or cities will be the launch customers,” he said.
He said the other major change coming by the end of this year will be an across-the-island service to be flown using A319 aircraft.
He said these 125 seaters will be exclusively for the Kingston to Montego Bay routes and will make five to six trips per day.
“These five to six small trips per day with smaller gauge jet aircraft will eliminate the need for taking our larger aircraft and flying them 18 minutes across the island which is not a very efficient use of these airplanes,” he said.
