Early history at
Sangster International Airport in
Montego Bay in 1965 British West Indian Airways was established on 27 November 1939 by New Zealander
Lowell Yerex. Operations started on 27 November 1940 with a piston powered
Lockheed Lodestar twin engine aircraft on daily services between
Trinidad and
Barbados. By 1942, the airline had three aircraft of this type. In 1947, BWIA was taken over by
British South American Airways (BSAA), after a few months operating as British International Air Lines the 'BWIA' name was restored on 24 June 1948 for operating routes among the Caribbean Islands using
Vickers Viking twin piston-engined airliners. In 1949, BSAA merged with
British Overseas Airways Corporation and BWIA became a subsidiary of BOAC.
Vickers Viscount four engine turboprops were introduced in 1955 with
Bristol Britannias leased in 1960 to fly the long-haul route to
London, via
New York City. In 1960 BWIA had its head office in
Port of Spain, Trinidad. On 1 November 1961, the government of Trinidad and Tobago acquired 90% of the shares in the airline and achieved complete ownership by 1967. For BWIA the jet age began in 1964 with the introduction of new
Boeing 727-100 jetliners billed as the Sunjet, which replaced the Viscount turboprops on the New York route. According to its timetable, in 1968 the airline was operating nonstop Boeing 727 flights from New York to
Antigua with continuing no change of plane 727 service to
Barbados,
St. Lucia and
Port of Spain as well as nonstop 727 flights from Miami to
Grand Cayman and
Montego Bay with continuing no change of plane 727 service to
Kingston,
San Juan, Puerto Rico, Antigua, St. Lucia, Barbados and Port of Spain, and was also serving
Caracas,
Guyana,
Suriname and
Tobago with the 727. In early 1971 four second-hand
Boeing 707 series 200 airliners were purchased from
Braniff International Airways and operated on US and intra-Caribbean services until their disposal in late 1975.
Later history The London route was restarted in 1975 using
Boeing 707 jets. In 1976 Peter Look Hong replaced
Sven-Erik Svanberg as CEO of BWIA. BWIA became
BWIA International Airways in 1980 after a merger with
Trinidad and Tobago Air Services (which had been formed by the government in June 1974), becoming the national airline. BWIA aircraft livery had the 'Trinidad and Tobago Airways' adjacent to the 'BWIA International' after the merger. The same year also saw the Boeing 707s replaced on the London service with long-range
Lockheed L-1011-500 TriStar wide-body jetliners. In 1986, BWIA bought its first
McDonnell Douglas MD-83. The airline also operated stretched
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-50 jetliners as well as a
Boeing 747-100 jumbo jet at one point. in 1987 in 1989 By 1994, the airline had become partially privatised. A substantial reorganisation of its route network left London and
Frankfurt the only
European destinations. The airline ordered
Boeing 757 and
767 aircraft, then canceled the order in favor of
Airbus A321 and
Airbus A340 jets; in turn, this order was dropped after only two A321s were delivered. On 22 February 1995, the government of Trinidad and Tobago completed the privatisation of BWIA by turning over majority control of the common stock and management of the airline to a private group of US and Caribbean investors. in 2002 In the early 2000s (decade), BWIA changed its livery to a new Caribbean green and blue color scheme with its famous
steelpan trademark, the national musical instrument of its home base. The fleet had been upgraded to seven
Boeing 737-800 Next Generation aircraft, two
Airbus A340-300s, and two
Bombardier de Havilland Canada DHC-8 Q300 Dash 8 twin turboprop regional aircraft flown by BWIA's sister airline
Tobago Express, which provided service on the short hop between Port of Spain and Trinidad's sister island Tobago as well as other destinations in the region. By 2003, BWIA had become one of the leading Caribbean airlines, carrying over 1.4 million passengers a year with over 600 departures in the Caribbean and another 60 international departures every week. BWIA earned roughly US$276 million per year, employed 2,350 staff, had 70 daily flights, and carried 8,100
tonnes (17,900,000 pounds) of air cargo per year. Its inflight magazine,
Caribbean Beat, was well regarded. However, BWIA had also been plagued by losses and had a history of continuous injections of funds from the government of
Trinidad and Tobago. The airline had filed for an IPO, although no date was set. The airline was owned by the Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago (75%) and private shareholders (25%) and had 2,588 employees (in January 2005). It also had holdings in other airlines:
Tobago Express (45%) and
LIAT (23.6%). On September 8, 2006, BWIA West Indies Airways announced its demise, after failed negotiations with the ACAWU, CATTU, Superintendent's Association and BWIA's management. CEO Peter Davies, who joined BWIA in March 2006, said that a new airline,
Caribbean Airlines, based in Trinidad and Tobago, would replace BWIA after 66 years of flying the Caribbean skies. Caribbean Airlines remains in current operation. BWIA's Pilots were represented by the
Trinidad and Tobago Airline Pilots Association (TTALPA), which is affiliated to
IFALPA. TTALPA is also part of the regional
Caribbean Airline Pilots Association (C-ALPA). The other recognised Unions at BWIA were:
Airline Superintendents Association; the
Aviation, Communication and Allied Workers Union, which represented ground staff and flight attendants, and the
Communication, Transport and General Workers Union which organised middle management and engineers. ==Destinations==