An Air Jamaica plane at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston. (Observer file photo)

AIR Jamaica, the national airline, will begin dropping some routes next month, including its previously popular flights to the United States city of Miami, affectionately called 'Kingston 21'.

At its peak, the "Love Bird" operated seven flights daily to Miami and became part of the political lexicon when late former Prime Minister Michael Manley famously offered "five flights a day" to Jamaicans fleeing the country after his visit to Fidel Castro's Cuba in the politically charged 1970s.

Two other Florida flights, to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, presumably more lucrative, will remain on the airline's schedule.

Admitting that it was bleeding red ink to the tune of US$170 million last year, the airline said in a statement yesterday that it would reduce its aeroplanes from 15 to nine and drastically cut staff and several routes, as part of a new business plan, apparently in readiness for divestment.

Effective February 26, the airline said, it would be pulling out of Atlanta, Georgia; Los Angeles, California; Grand Cayman and Miami. It will also discontinue services between Jamaica and Barbados and Jamaica and Grenada.

Air Jamaica's new schedule has 218 weekly flights to 14 destinations between Jamaica and Toronto, New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Curacao, Nassau and Havana. The airline will also offer service between New York and Barbados and New York and Grenada.

"With these changes the airlines fleet will be reduced to nine aircraft, the appropriate number required to effectively operate the new schedule," said the Air Jamaica statement. It added that the airline would also restructure existing leases and negotiate aircraft returns to accomplish this result.

Yesterday, Air Jamaica chairman Shirley Williams declined to comment on the number of workers whose jobs would be made redundant or if the move was a part of the ongoing divestment initiative, saying only that staff members were being briefed.

"At this moment we are making no public statement," Williams told the Observer. "Air Jamaica is working behind the scenes with the staff, we have got to do it as best as possible," she remarked.

In the statement, Air Jamaica president Bruce Nobles said that everything was being done to reduce the impact on staff members, including offering voluntary redundancies and leave of absence.