(Trinidad Express) — Caribbean Airlines (CAL) is expected to present a strategic plan to the Cabinet before the end of this month in which the company will tell government about its plans to expand its operations, to increase connectivity to Trinidad and Tobago and throughout the region.
Express Business has learnt that as part of its presentation CAL will say to the Keith Rowley administration that it will acquire at least three additional Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft to service the North American and North Western Caribbean routes and more ATRs for the Eastern Caribbean and between Trinidad and Tobago.
It is also to raise the possibility of leasing Brazilian built Embraer aircraft to compete against Copa Airlines on the South American route with either flights to Rio De Janeiro or an agreement with the Brazilian carrier, GOL, to fly passengers between the region and South America.
Caribbean Airlines confirmed to Express Business that it has already sent out a Request For Proposal (RFP) for the three 737 Max 8 aircraft.
Asked, when it expects to go out with its RFP for three additional 737 Max 8, CAL responded by simply saying, “This is completed.”
The company was also asked if the acquisition led to more routes or greater reliability on existing routes.
It told the Express Business that while the additional Max 8 will lead to more routes, it was not prepared to say at this time where the aircraft will be deployed.
The Airline wrote in an email response to Express Business: “Caribbean Airlines currently operates an extensive and reliable schedule to over 20 destinations. As part of its mandate to enhance connectivity in the region, the airline intends to expand its route network. At the appropriate time more details will be provided.”
The Cabinet presentation comes less than two months after Carnival 2023 saw smaller numbers than 2020 and the lack of connectivity was blamed for the smaller number of revellers.
It will also be welcomed news to tourism stakeholders who have been concerned with both the price of tickets to fly to T&T and the frequency and availability of flights.
It is now much more difficult to get to Trinidad and Tobago by plane than it was pre Covid-19 due to the loss of all Liat’s flights, all flights out of Canada, except Caribbean Airlines and a significant reduction in service out of Florida.
Figures provided to the Express Business by the Airport’s Authority for the month of February, leading up to this year’s Carnival, show the number of flights coming to Trinidad and Tobago from all destinations decreased by a massive 46 per cent. There were 408 flights this year as compared to 760 in 2020. It must be noted that in both years Carnival fell almost on the same date and therefore the peak demand period was the same.
Liat no longer has service in 2023 as compared to 2020 when all its flights were functional and provided much connectivity to the rest of the region.
American Airlines operates one turnaround flight per day versus 2020 when it operated one turnaround and one overnight flight. JetBlue has pulled its Ft Lauderdale route and now operates only one flight compared to 2020 when there were two flights per day. WestJet and Air Canada no longer fly to Trinidad compared to in 2020 when they operated pre-Covid.
The statistics also show that Caribbean Airlines simply cannot pick up the slack with its limited number of planes and routes.
In a telephone interview with Express Business, General Manager of the Airports Authority of Trinidad and Tobago, Hayden Newton argued that all the major airlines have had challenges in terms of pilots and staffing.
“There were challenges with Southwest and American Airlines with their pilots.” He noted.
Newton said there was zeal to come to Trinidad for Carnival 2023, but there were not enough flights coming in. For example, from Canada, the only carrier was Caribbean Airlines. Then there is the challenge of the labour laws in Canada with regard to flying to a particular jurisdiction.
“Flights coming out of Toronto (major hub) and other parts of Canada were down….If you look at American, they would have had about three flights per day in 2020. CAL has JFK, Miami and Ft Lauderdale. JFK and Miami operate every day. Ft Lauderdale did not operate daily. It’s either three times per week at Fort Lauderdale and Orlando operated twice per week,“ Newton told Express Business.
“CAL has other flights that go twice weekly to the United States. American had much less flights into Trinidad. JetBlue operated only the normal JFK flight. They did not have the Ft Lauderdale which they had in 2020. Before JetBlue had two flights daily – one from JFK International Airport and one from Ft Lauderdale. United might have been the only one that operated in the same manner like 2020,” added Newton.
CAL also confirmed that it is expecting to take possession of other ATRs to service the regional routes.
Asked if it was looking at acquiring some Brazilian made aircraft to also fly some routes and what was the state of discussions with GOL to partner and compete with COPA on the South American route, the national carrier said, “Caribbean Airlines is always reviewing its options to enhance its operations and service delivery.”
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One response to “Caribbean Airlines moves to expand fleet”
I saw this coming for a while now.
Different from Dominica no other government in the Caribbean with partner with Antigua 🇦🇬 to build back liat once it’s headquarters are in Antigua.
LIAT private investers may be your option to get to your renewed service