The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An airline will honour Sandals Resorts International’s (SRI) founder, the late Gordon “Butch” Stewart, by naming a new aircraft that is set to be delivered this year after him.

Citing his work to strengthen and foster tourism in Jamaica, Frontier Airlines will name the plane tail ‘Stewart the Red-Billed Streamertai’. This will both honour the Sandals founder and incorporate Jamaica’s national bird, the red-billed streamertail, locally known as the doctor bird, to Frontier’s signature plane tails programme.

The new design was unveiled by Frontier Airlines president and chief executive, Barry Biffle, at a ceremonial event held at Sandals Montego Bay.

“Sharing Jamaica with the world was my father’s joy, and our hearts are filled with immense pride with the introduction of ‘Stewart the Red-Billed Streamertail’ to the Frontier fleet. I know that my dad would be so proud to have our Jamaican doctor bird flying once again,” said Adam Stewart, executive chairman of Sandals Resorts International.

“Thank you, Frontier. We are honoured that you have chosen to pay tribute to him in this extraordinary way. His legendary spirit will now continue to soar over his beloved Jamaica.”

“We present this new design in recognition of the work that Mr Stewart, and indeed the entire Stewart family, has done for tourism in Jamaica,” said Mr Biffle.

A fierce champion of Jamaican since entering the tourism industry in 1981, Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart’s leadership helped resurrect Jamaica’s travel industry at the time. He was elected president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) in 1989 and was inducted into its ‘Hall of Fame’ in 1995.

He served as a director of the Jamaica Tourist Board for a decade, and as president of the Jamaica Hotel and Tourist Association in the mid-1980s, balancing government and private sector priorities, reconciling the concerns of large and small Jamaican hotels, and raised public understanding of the tourism industry. Understanding the critical need for consistent lift to his island destination, Mr Stewart in 1994 led a group of investors to take leadership of Air Jamaica, the Caribbean’s largest regionally-based carrier.