TRANSPORT and Works Minister Mike Henry has asked the management of Air Jamaica to put all commitments on hold regarding the Kingston to London route, less than three weeks before Virgin Atlantic is expected to begin flying out of the city under a new code-share agreement with the national carrier.

“I have asked Air Jamaica’s present management to hold on any commitments whatsoever,” Henry told the Observer last week.

“I am looking at the inherited agreements and the memorandum of understanding (MOU) as it relates to agreements made with the London route and I am awaiting some advice on that matter,” added the transport minister.

However, Paul Charles, director of communications at Virgin Atlantic Airways, appeared unaware of this decision to put the agreement on hold as he gave the assurance that all was proceeding as planned.

“Rest assured, we are very much starting our services as scheduled on October 30. Seats are selling well and we have some great fares,” Charles told the Observer via e-mail from his London office.

But Henry maintained that he would be analysing the contract which was made between Virgin Atlantic and the previous administration for the sale of the London route under a code share agreement.

Last May, Air Jamaica announced that it would discontinue its service to London, effective October 28, and enter into a code-share agreement with Virgin Atlantic, under which the Air Jamaica code would be placed on all Virgin Atlantic flights between Jamaica and London Gatwick.

The sale of the national carrier’s lucrative landing and gate slots at Heathrow International Airport in London to Virgin Atlantic also formed part of the deal which sparked controversy.

On June 1, then finance minister, Dr Omar Davies, announced that Jamaica had earned £5.1 million (US$10.2 million) from the sale, but said that the deal was still being negotiated.

Davies, responding to criticisms that the sale was carried out without public consultation, said that negotiations with private interests could not be conducted in public, and market-sensitive information could not be fully aired.

“It is very important that the country recognise that in terms of commercial agreements one cannot have these discussions at the National Arena, in which everyone can have a say. These are commercial discussions,” Davies said then.

“I wish to indicate that the decision to discontinue the London route was arrived at after careful and extensive deliberations. The route has been a significant drag on profitability, with little or no prospects for a reversal of the trend. It is our expectation that the action taken by Air Jamaica, coupled with other initiatives, will put the company on a path to commercial success in the future,” he said.

Davies said that Air Jamaica lost US$27 million on the London route in 2006, and that projections were that the figure would have exceeded US$30 million in 2007.

The ruling Jamaica Labour Party, in its election manifesto, said it would seek “an equity partnership with a suitable international airline to revitalise Air Jamaica and to integrate it within a wider network of destinations and connections”.