GOVERNMENT’S efforts to sell the only two state-owned aircraft to pay off debts owed by the national carrier — Air Jamaica — to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the United States have not found any takers just yet.

“We have the airplanes on the market for US$17 million apiece. They have been on the market since summer of last year. We’ve been scouting but not finding anyone willing to pay that much for the aircraft,” president of the airline Bruce Nobles told the Observer yesterday.

The top Air Jamaica executive said the current “tough economic climate and the fact that they (planes) are not new” have contributed to them not being sold as yet.

Nobles, who had been somewhat reluctant to say the value of the crafts, said based on these factors it was difficult to say if they would in fact be sold at the current asking price.

“We don’t know until we sell them,” he told the Observer.

In the meantime, he said the airline’s debt to the IRS, which was in excess of US$40 million at one point, was decreasing ‘every day’ based on payments being made.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding, in a statement to Parliament yesterday, said the two aircraft owned by Air Jamaica would be sold to settle debts to the IRS.

“We owe a lot of money. We have had to use diplomatic channels to avoid our planes being seized for non-payment of fees owed to the Government of the United States. It is proposed to dispose of those two aircraft in order to discharge that obligation,” the prime minister told the House.

He said the two aircraft were the only ones owned of the eight operated by the airline.

Responding to queries about the airline’s other assets which are to be divested, Golding said these included the routes and real estate holdings, spare parts and the maintenance facility.

Golding said, too, that negotiations were underway for the sale of five floors of the Air Jamaica Building on Harbour Street in downtown Kingston, the proceeds of which will help to continue the operations of the airline until the negotiations for its sale are complete.

Government is at present negotiating with the Trinidadian-owned Caribbean Airlines for the sale of Air Jamaica.

Redundancy payments to the workers are estimated at US$25 million, Golding said. The airline has more than 1,200 workers, including more than 100 pilots.