KINGSTON, Jamaica  — The Bustamante Industrial Trade Union (BITU) says it is pleased with the return of some 16 members of the Caribbean Airline (CAL) cabin crew body to active engagement with the airline.

As of last Thursday, these employees who remained attached to the airline through an exceptional lay-off agreement with union, have been called in to attend various training sessions, due partially to the duration which elapsed since their personal last operational engagements, and the airline’s recent acquisition of at least two, and possibly four, MAX aircrafts, which will be servicing CAL destinations.

The Caribbean Airlines’ MAX fleet is on lease from Air Lease Corporation (ALC). The expectation is that CAL will have transitioned its jet fleet entirely to the Boeing 737-8 by July 2022, phasing out all its other Boeing airplanes in the process.

The BITU confirmed that it has remained in focused discussions surrounding maintaining the best feasible level of employment among areas of its membership, and the return of the airline to competitive operations.

In a release on the latest developments, the BITU said that: “While the Airline has indicated that it is not yet out of the woods, we believe that today signals well for the immediate future, and may be a first step in the airline returning to normalcy while restoring and possibly growing its market share.

“It is certainly a relief for those workers who will be receiving the required training from today onward, and are rostered to commence flight duties as of about February 7, especially since they have not earned for some months now.

“Our focus at this point is directly towards our membership at CAL, which includes cabin crews, as well as engineering staff, where there are several critical issues to be addressed.”