I'm Flying on a Jet Plane

Just to let you know that there are other costs
associated with owning an executive jet such as the one that is being
purchased by CAL. Remember, Government has agreed to sufficient "block
time" to ensure "financial neutrality" (read no loss) to CAL. That
means all these costs will be met by the Government (taxpayer).

Take a look at the following site. It gives the hourly plus fixed
and other costs associated with the Global Express XRS (and other
Bombardier jets) www.aviatrade.aero/Operating%20Costs-B.asp.

By the time you add in interest/financing cost on $300 million (at
least $15 million per year) plus the fixed cost as well as hourly costs
(around 250 hours a year), you could easily see that this works out to
over $20 million per year on top of the $300 million!

The 250 hours per year could be broken down as follows:

- Two intra-Caribbean trips per month (four hours return), $320,000 each trip;

- One Miami trip per month (eight hours return), $640,000 each trip;

- Two England trips per year (16 hours return), $1,280,000 each trip;

- One Africa trip per year (28 hours return), $2,080,000 each trip.

More trips, more expense. All of this is over and above the $300 million cost of the plane!

This is simple math and does not include depreciation, overnight
parking in other countries, landing fees, etc. So for "financial
neutrality", this is the price that the Government will pay for CAL to
break even.

Even if CAL got the $300 million for "free", these are still the costs to the taxpayer.

Trini Taxpayer

Via e-mail