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KINGSTON, Jamaica, December 15, 2019 (CMC) – Guyana-based carrier, Fly Jamaica, has filed for bankruptcy protection, in a bid to seek protection from creditors. This was by revealed Marlon Murdock – the agent for Fly Jamaica trustee, Wilfred Baghaloo – in an interview with the Gleaner.
According to Murdock, the filing for bankruptcy protection, with the Office of Insolvency, was done on October 29, and that Fly Jamaica is preparing a proposal for creditors to vote on – this was preceded by a ‘Notice of Intention’ in the press.
“The process now is that since Fly Jamaica has filed a notice of intention, they had an initial 30 days to put together a proposal that they were going to present to creditors, who will then vote on it, so that they can either accept or reject,” Murdock said.
He said the airline was given an extension, so the new date will be January 14, 2020.
He told the Gleaner, that the airline has presented a list of 259 creditors, who are owed US$21.86 million, but the list is not exhaustive .
Fly Jamaica Airways started operating on February 14,2013. However the carrier was grounded, following an incident at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, on November 9, 2018, when its 757 Boeing aircraft, destined for Toronto, Canada, encountered difficulties and made an emergency landing, with more than 100 passengers on board.
In March, the airline made all staff redundant, with then-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Paul Reece, saying that this was due to the lack of planes to carry out operations, and the failure of the company to recover, in the aftermath of the November emergency landing.
Prospective buyers of the airline, headed by French acquisition and diversified firm W&L SAS, initially said they planned to get the airline flying again by September of this year. The deal eventually failed to materialize.
