PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar says the state-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) does not operate a single profitable route and has given the management of the airline two years to get the company’s financial house in order or face the sack.
Addressing a meeting of her ruling United National Congress on Monday night, Persad Bissessar said also that millions of dollars had been paid out to two prominent accounting firms and yet the airline has not been able to submit audited financial statements.
She said millions of dollars had been paid out to two internationally known accounting firms despite the airline having 86 people on staff .
“To date Caribbean Airlines has not submitted an audited financial statement for the last nine years. Do you know that not one single Caribbean Airlines route is profitable, not one route is profitable, yet plane filling out every day going and coming. Not one single route of Caribbean Airline is bringing in a profit, but we are spending millions of dollars on the airline” she told supporters.
She gave the state-owned company a deadline to fix the situation or the workers terminated.
‘I am giving the management of Caribbean Airlines two years, max, they have to sort out the mess, ; otherwise, everyone there will be looking for a new job… your future is in your hands,’ she said.
“No longer we will accept taxes paid by ordinary citizens, paid by teachers, paid by policemen, small enterprises ….to upkeep CAL,” she said, noting that management was receiving “large salaries for doing what, failing in their jobs.
“We must not continue. Furthermore, my government will not continue bailing out perennially failing state enterprises. The majority of them are failing, spending billions…this cannot continue..,” she added.
Since 2023, CAL has been adding several new destinations to its route map, including Puerto Rico, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Tortola, as part of its 2023-2027 strategic plan – approved by the former administration.
The airline is reported to have transported over two million passengers in both 2023 and 2024.
