RIOTING in Jamaica led to a fall in revenue for the national airline, admitted chief executive Chris Zacca (Travel Weekly April 26).
He said the civil unrest, sparked by an increase in fuel prices, caused around 20% of Air Jamaica flights to be cancelled, resulting in a fall in revenue. The situation only started to improve two weeks after the riots had died down.
Zacca said: “We saw a reduction in revenue and we were few percentage points down.”
He refused to say how much the riots had cost the airline. At the height of the trouble, Heathrow flights to Montego Bay and Kingston were cancelled. Zacca said this was because the services arrive into Jamaica at night and the airline did not want passengers on the road when there may encounter rioting.
However, Zacca said Air Jamaica was now carrying the expected numbers of passengers for this time of year. He expected numbers in 1999 to be 12% higher than last year’s 1.76m passenger figure. Much of the growth will come from the UK due to larger aircraft on the Heathrow route. Increases will also come from the addition of Grenada and Bonaire services, plus frequency rises on key US flights.