CAL’s current situation clearly unsustainable

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - Is it unrealistic for T&T to continue to have a national airline? Or is the issue one of incompetent and corrupt management at the national airline? Can Caricom, as a group of struggling economies, continue to have half a dozen national airlines, all of them losing hundreds of millions of dollars annually?
In the instance of the T&T-owned Caribbean Airlines Ltd, the information put into the public domain by this newspaper about potentially corrupt, wasteful and extravagant dealings is indicative of why CAL’s losses for 2012 are expected to amount to an unaudited and approximate $800 million.
Finance Minister Larry Howai and Trade Minister Vasant Bharath are examining and investigating the reports and the performance of the airline. If the board has been functioning in as contentious and counter-productive a way as has been reported, the Government must take responsibility for putting right this state of affairs.