The Associated Press late Saturday night reported that Miramar, Fla.-based Spirit Airlines bought Air Jamaica, citing unnamed sources, although Spriit spokewoman Misty Pinson refused to comment on the sale.

But as of this evening, the government is saying that a deal has not yet been done.  "We are still talking to interested parties and the matter has not yet gone to Cabinet," an anonymous Air Jamaica board member told the Jamaica Observer.

Air Jamaica management put the carrier on the selling block in December 2008, even creating a special web site -- www.airjamaicatransaction.org -- for interested investors.

After the airline announced the sale, I did a blog post on it and asked an economist friend the value of the carrier.  He said the carrier was "the classic case" of the importance of an airline to the health and maintenance of an economy.  "From a pure privatization play, Air Jamaica has a value of zero," he stated.  "Yes there are short-term gains to bolster the bank account, but in the long term, a perpetually losing airline stands a high risk of becoming extinct as it holds little to no value for any financial player." The value of Air Jamaica to me seems to only lie with the Jamaican government and the Jamaican tourism industry, he added. 

Last month, the government gave the cash-strapped flag carrier loan guarantees of $101.8 million for working capital as its management continued to try and sell the airline.  Air Jamaica already missed March 30 and June 30 deadlines to be sold.

As of mid-June, Finance Minister Audley Shaw told Aviation Daily (subscribers only) that the government was engaged in “aggressive negotiations with potential partners for the acquisition of the airline,” and added that “two of those were very serious proposals,” would be presented to the cabinet.  Two buyers-- British tour operator Thomas Cook and Trinidad’s Caribbean Airlines -- had expressed interest in Air Jamaica.  Watch this space!