Honorable Ministers, Mr. Bosque, invited guests, service partners, customers, members of the press, ladies and gentlemen, it is indeed inspiring to experience the confluence of support tat has been afforded us over the last 12 months, which has brought us to this moment.

The deterrents to this project getting off the ground have been many, gravity being the least of them. There is no way that the challenges could have been overcome without the cooperation and assistance of all of the agencies and departments concerned. The course that we have managed to navigate to obtain our certifications has taken a mere 9 months. Anyone that is familiar with the mechanics of such an involved process will appreciate that in the normal scheme of things it could take 2 or 3 times that long to achieve.

The responses to our calls have been prompt, professional and supportive. The Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority and MBJ Airport Limited are deserving of special mention for their part in facilitation services that have made it possible.

Jamaica Air Shuttle would not have become a reality without the vision, confidence and entrepreneurial guidance of Mr. Bruce Kaufman, who has provided invaluable stimulus and support in his capacity of aircraft financier and investor in this project. He has stepped up to the plate when no Jamaican investor would.

Jamaica Air Shuttle is pleased and proud to be doing our part to provide not only investment and jobs opportunities for our people through this project, but more importantly to provide the mobility, speed, productivity and efficiency tool that our customers tell us that they need to stimulate commerce, industry, trade and investment within our country.

Jamaica is at important cross roads in our development. Debt swaps alone are not going to transform our economy into the engine of growth that the country needs to generate employment and wealth creation.

Jamaica Air Shuttle has positioned itself to provide the movers and shakers, the managers and the foot soldiers within our society the access and mobility that they will need to put back on their track shoes and their entrepreneurial caps and start to produce the our way out of our predicament and create opportunities and jobs for Jamaicans.

We have the utmost confidence that the talents and the patriotism that are required to place us back on a path of growth and development for the country reside amongst us, and that given the motivation and the tools the productive sector can and will once again rise from the ashes and provide the economy with the desired propulsion.

Given that we are living in the nano second age of information technology, it is paradoxical and counter-productive that an one hour meeting or appointment on the other side of the island should take a full business day of travel to accomplish. The loss of productive time is only exacerbated when it is multiple persons that are required to make the journey by road.

One of our prominent frequent flyer customers the other day told me "Air Shuttle gives me six extra hours in the day".

We look forward to valuing all of our customer's time and to liberating you all to be as productive and as effective as the demands for succeeding in today's hostile economic environment require you to be.

We thank you for the support and reinforcement that has been given to us, and we look forward to providing you with the tail winds and the soft landings as we all earn our way out of Jamaica's dilemma.

We thank you all for being here with us to celebrate this milestone today, and we look forward to seeing you all on board in the near future.