Ministers meet on REDjet issue

Representatives from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados are due to hold talks today.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Thursday June 16, 2011 – Ministers responsible for transportation in Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados are scheduled to hold talks today in a bid to resolve the rift developing as a result of the delay in giving low-cost carrier REDjet approval.

The Jamaica Observer newspaper said the country’s Transport Minister Mike Henry would meet in Port of Spain with his counterparts.

This comes after Prime Minister Bruce Golding said he would discuss the matter with fellow leaders in the other two countries. The newspaper reported that a decision had been made to have Henry handle the matter instead.

The call for all sides to meet came after a Caribbean Airlines (CAL) plane was detained in Barbados last week.

Golding, whose country has 16 percent shares in CAL which took over the operations of Air Jamaica, had linked that incident to the delay in granting the Barbados-based REDjet permission to fly to Kingston.

"The suspicion is that it is an aggressive action and I hope it is not, because that is not the way we in CARICOM must resolve our issues," he said last weekend.

Prime Minister Golding said since the finalization of the Air Jamaica/CAL merger, there had been increased pressure to give REDjet the approval it is seeking, but he insisted that Jamaica would not be bullied into making any decision.

As a result of the holdup, REDjet currently only flies between Barbados and Guyana.

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