CAL’s return flight into controversy

IT HAS been almost 20 years since Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) was incorporated as a wholly-owned state enterprise, replacing British West Indies Airways Ltd (BWIA). That transition cost an estimated US$359.9 million or about TT$2.5 billion, according to a 2018 parliamentary report. Yet, has that been recouped? Is the airline today profitable?

Two decades later, CAL keeps flying in controversy in relation to such questions, as seen by recent exchanges between the Prime Minister and PNM MP Colm Imbert, who for ten years sat at the head of the finance ministry that acts as the airline’s corporation sole.

Speaking at a post-cabinet media briefing on June 5, Ms Persad-Bissessar said CAL officials recently attempted to “jumbie” the new UNC government with a shopping list of demands. A $260 million loan is rolling over.

“CAL is in the red, but every time they speak, they’re talking about the gains they’re making, how much profit they’re making,” she said, announcing a new board.

But Mr Imbert, in a social media post a day later, denied as “false” any suggestion of a cover-up. He said the airline has always referred to operating profit, “which they should know excludes debt service.”

Disclosed in the 2025 Draft Estimates of Recurrent Expenditure under the Ministry of Finance are items for debt servicing for CAL to the tune of $99 million in local loan interest and principal repayment of $196 million. This, besides a $70 million transfer.

CAL reported an operating profit of $111 million for 2018 and $121 million for 2019. But the pandemic year of 2020 saw losses of almost $600 million. Nonetheless, by 2023, officials were buoyant.

In February 2025, Mr Imbert said the carrier had moved “from an operating loss of US$36.7 million in 2022 to an operating profit of US$24.7 million, excluding debt service.” (That was akin to moving from TT$250 million to TT$166 million.) He added, “In 2024, the operating profit fell to US$12.1 million, excluding debt service.” (About TT$82 million.)

Even so, as far back as 2017, Parliament’s Joint Select Committee on State Enterprises noted, “CAL has consistently failed to adhere to reporting timelines.” Correspondence with an activist in 2025 also suggested missing submissions for 2016-2024. This was the context of the 2024 salary increase for pilots.

While the UNC and PNM rightly spar over all these details, CAL’s importance should not be limited to profitability.

As the structure of its shareholding reveals – it is 88.1 per cent state-owned, 11.9 per cent owned by the Jamaican government – its function is geo-strategic, both within Caricom and closer to home.

In 2007, it gained the Tobago Express Ltd route. That air-bridge is subsidised to the tune of about $50 million annually, primarily because it is far too important to be left to the whims of the global airline industry. CAL will always be controversial. But for the moment, it remains indispensable. The focus should be on both profit and its capacity to serve the people — two often inconsistent things.