After more than 40 years of existence, a national icon is about to move from the world of the active to the realm of memories. The Lovebird, pride of many a Jamaican – either island resident or immigrant abroad – will soon come to earth for the last time and fold its wings forever. The demise of Air Jamaica is a sad day for many, but in the hard world of economics, with an accumulated debt of more than US$1 billion, it is an inevitable end.

At the time of independence, there was a lot of brave talk about launching this or that national project. Establishing a national airline was near the top of that list, but it took six years before that dream was realised. In the mid-1960s the government worked out an arrangement with the British national carrier, BOAC, to operate a service called Air Jamaica using aircraft leased from and crewed by BOAC. That “wet lease” set-up was for a finite period and was non-renewable.

Britain was busy divesting itself of its colonies and was not disposed toward setting up risky new ventures like airlines. But a Commonwealth member flexing its own wings stepped into the breach. Canada had been an eager supporter of the ill-starred West Indies Federation, among other things donating a couple of ships to encourage free movement among the islands.

In 1968, the governments of Jamaica and Canada agreed to launch Air Jamaica with the Montreal-based national carrier, Air Canada, taking a junior financial stake. Air Canada deferred taking delivery of two DC-8 jets ordered from the US manufacturer, Douglas, to furnish the new carrier with its first aircraft. Under the deal, Air Canada would train Air Jamaica crews and maintain the aircraft at facilities in Canada.

I recall the enthusiasm and optimism in evidence at a reception the airline held at the old Sheraton hotel to introduce its first contingent of flight crew and other staffers. Very soon we were able to see the distinctively painted aircraft with the doctor bird on its tail on display at the airport we knew then as Palisadoes and which is now called Norman Manley International.

The airline very quickly gained altitude and levelled off for sustained flight. At first, it went to Miami and New York, then added Philadelphia, Toronto and London. That covered the places where most of the Jamaican diaspora were located at the time. Careful scheduling allowed the airline to hold down costs by flying in to Toronto at night and flying out the next morning. Overnight, Air Canada’s mechanics could provide the routine servicing aircraft need and the pilots and flight attendants could rest before flying out the next day.

Despite the cheery, friendly and light-hearted image it projects, the airline business is a cut-throat, dog-eat-dog one not for the faint of heart. All you need is one serious crash to wipe out years of positive earnings. In fact, people who have studied air travel since its beginning assert that overall, airlines are a losing proposition. The strict requirements and demands for maintenance of the flying stock, rigorous training for crews on the ground, in the cabin or cockpit and the meticulous attention to safety are extremely expensive.

The roster of once illustrious airlines which have – figuratively speaking — crashed and burned, is long. The first airline to make a big splash with us was the US giant which went by the grand title Pan American World Airways. And splash it did, as the first intrepid air travellers to our shores arrived aboard lumbering Pan American flying boats which roared into Kingston Harbour and tied up at Harbour Head.

Pan American was founded in 1927 to ferry mail by seaplane from Key West, Florida, to Havana. Even after the company shortened its name to PanAm and switched from piston to jet propulsion, it still called its planes Clippers after the trading ships which linked the United States to the rest of the world.

Pan Am had a string of firsts and records, including the first trans-Atlantic jet flight by Boeing 707 in 1958, and was the lead customer for the Boeing 747. It was the US flag carrier all over the world but was never allowed to fly on domestic routes even after deregulation in 1978. Competitors began picking up international routes, eating into PanAm’s earnings. Other factors contributed to weakening the once-dominant carrier, and it eventually declared bankruptcy in 1991, with competitors picking up the pieces at fire-sale prices.

Economics, and in some cases bad management, led to the demise of other successful carriers, such as Eastern, TWA, Braniff and Swissair. Others, like KLM, Air France, Sabena, Japan Air Lines, Alitalia and even Lufthansa have had serious brushes with bankruptcy, takeovers, mergers and bailouts.

There are many instances of small countries with airlines launched mainly to satisfy national egos. On the other hand, there are cases where even fairly wealthy countries have pooled their resources in order to have an airline. A prime example is SAS, the Scandinavian airlines system, owned by Sweden, Norway and Denmark. It took to the air in 1946 and is still aloft.

This template would have served the Caribbean very well. Since 1940, the region was served by British West Indian Airways, commonly known as BWIA or B-wee. In its early life it was a subsidiary of BOAC and its shaky finances and sometimes erratic observance of flight schedules often led to the mocking description: BWIA stood for “Britain’s Worst Investment Abroad” or “But Will It Arrive”. Something they always chose to forget, though, is that it never had a fatal crash.

The airline was based in Trinidad and in 1961 the government there began acquiring shares, completely taking over six years later. It was a strain on the government’s resources and Prime Minister Eric Williams invited the governments of the other islands to join in ownership. According to the Trinidadian author Michael Anthony in his Historical Dictionary of Trinidad and Tobago, Williams went so far as to offer a five-year guarantee to underwrite any losses the airline might incur.

Not one single offer came, and in fact, the Jamaican government scoffed at the offer as it was busy with dreams of its own airline. It was not a very smart reaction, considering the track record BWIA had built up and the connections and infrastructure already in place. Now that airline, too, had racked up so much debt that it was forced to fold in 2006 after 66 years in the air, and be superseded by a freshly-minted, debt-free entity, Caribbean Airlines, which is in the process of taking over Air Jamaica.

As in the case of Air Jamaica, its aircraft are decorated with a huge picture of a hummingbird. Let’s see if this one will fly long and strong.

keeble.mack@symptico.ca