HERE HelenAir lays off 50 workers in scramble for survival Local airline company HelenAir this week laid off fifty employees in a desperate bid to resuscitate business and to consolidate gains made from its more lucrative charter business. Scheduled services to Barbados, Trinidad and Grenada have been dropped and only a mini-schedule featuring daily flights to and from Dominica and St. Vincent will be continued in addition to the charter business.
All newspapers report extensively on the news.
Furthermore, journalists have been placing question marks against minister Mario Michel's involvement with the airline, following contradictory statements regarding the precise timing of the termination of Michel's role as company secretary with HelenAir. Having started in 1987 as a charter company, operating with no office and just one thousand dollars in the bank, directors Arthur Neptune, Joaquim Willie and Mario Reyes within ten years managed to build up a fleet of seven aircraft. A decision to switch from charters to scheduled flights, taken in 1997, however meant high investments in staff, re-training and equipment. In July of this year, financial help was needed, and sought, resulting in the infamous government guarantee. The Star puts a different slant on HelenAir's press release announcing the temporary dismissal of fifty employees.