My supervisor seemed to have been the mastermind behind what seemed like a massive fraud at Air Jamaica. Staff members at the bank were happy that he left the island. Many felt that they could be dragged into the investigations, and they could end up losing their jobs. A former member of the management team contacted me over the weekend and told me that my former supervisor in banking died earlier this year. His girlfriend and children never saw him before he died.
I was given a new assignment to manage reservations control. I was intimidated by the offer because I knew nothing about the BABS reservations system. The marketing VP felt I could do the job. The staff were very apprehensive about my appointment, but in a few months I was sitting comfortably in the position and was able to show them things that they were not aware of.
There were major system challenges, which I identified, and these had a major impact on the airline's revenues. The bookings and cancellations which happened between Air Jamaica, other airlines, and other reservation systems did not take place in real time.
If one booked a seat from another system on Air Jamaica, the request was sent as a text message. Sometimes the Air Jamaica system was unable to process these messages, and they ended up in a queue called message edit. Messages ran into many thousands of unactioned messages. This resulted in bookings that should have been cancelled being shown as booked in the airline inventory. Fully booked flights for the peak period ended up being empty seats as a result. Booking messages which were not actioned meant it was almost impossible to manage your seat inventory. The losses to the airline must have been massive because of this.
I motivated the staff to work some long hours to clear up these messages. Staff members and I were still at the office until 12:00 some nights, working. The bookings were now more realistic, but the level of no-shows for our flights was still high, and that impacted the revenues significantly. No-shows are confirmed passenger seats, and these passengers did not turn up for the flight.
There was also another challenge. Wholesalers in North America booked out significant blocks of the flights, and they ended up not selling the seats. Air Jamaica had many empty seats on its routes. Another area of massive losses. These were cheap fare seats, and these seats could have been sold for premium prices, especially during the peak periods.
I recommended policies to deal with wholesalers having large seat inventories, which we could not sell. This did not go down well with the wholesalers, and the battle started. The first casualty was the VP for Marketing and Sales, followed by me. I thought my job was to make the airline profitable using proper seat management strategies.
I was not kicked out of the airline. I was sent to the Information Technology Department. I was sent to an area again that I knew nothing about. I subsequently learned that the VP for Finance said that before they terminated my job, he would resign from his job. Going to the IT department was a major eye-opener, and I saw first-hand why Air Jamaica was not making any money. Too many were milking this cow, which was now suffering from malnutrition.
IT was the eye-opener where I was given some interesting tasks. It was a time when fear gripped me every day I went to work. Lloyd James had learned why the airline was not making money based on my work, but apparently he had learned too much. He was assassinated!
*********************
Weather
Eastern Tropical Atlantic: A tropical wave is expected to move off the west coast of Africa on Monday, and an area of low pressure could form in association with the wave early this week. Environmental conditions are forecast to be marginally conducive for development, and a tropical depression could form by the middle to latter portions of the week while the system moves generally westward at 15 to 20 mph across the eastern and central tropical Atlantic.
Tomorrow, Monday, August 24, will be another hot day. It could be as high as 94 degrees Celsius. Ensure that you drink enough water and stay out of the sun. You would not want to have a heat stroke.
Prostate Cancer
Remember to have your prostate checked out by the doctor, or you might see your maker earlier than he had planned.
Please add your comments at the bottom of the blog.
________________
 |
| Click Here. |
Keep abreast of the news and information in the world. Bark Di Trute, a Jamaican blog, is packed with accurate information. Click the following link and get information at your fingertips. WhatsApp link is: https://chat.whatsapp.com/C9bkP96JIN2JgHiuktY3Jj
_________________
_________________
Subscribe Now!
Without your support, Bark Di Trute could fail to bark one day. Send your ideas, stories, and news by WhatsApp at (876) 816-5261.
You can view the blog with your computer at https://vderby.blogspot.com, and you will be able to see the various links. For example, there is a link that takes you to the calendar to see what is happening on the weekend. You can even search the site for articles. There is also a weather link, which you can use to track hurricanes.
_____________________
Your story about Air Jamaica makes a very interesting read. That airline should have been preserved, but then, who would bell the cat?
ReplyDeleteBell the cat! You could end up losing your life.
ReplyDelete