Archive for July, 2011
State carrier Caribbean Airlines has officially launched its service from Port of Spain to Orlando, Florida.
A CAL 737 aircraft touched down at Orlando International Airport on Tuesday afternoon with more than 150 passengers aboard.
Many of the passengers were parents with plans to take their children to experience Disney World Orlando as a reward for success in the SEA examination.
CAL acting chief executive Robert Corbie told the Express at Piarco minutes before the inaugural flight that the direct route to Orlando made it easier for vacationing parents and children.
The flight from Piarco International Airport at 10 a.m. on Tuesday was 97 per cent filled, he said.
But what was more surprising, he said, was that the return flight had 121 passengers from Florida coming to Trinidad and Tobago.
Airline vice-president, Operations, Capt Thomas Lawrence, piloted the 737 aircraft to Orlando and back again Tuesday.
CAL hosted a flight reception at the Hyatt Regency at Orlando airport on Tuesday to welcome travel agents and Orlando city officials.
It was attended by Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Trinidad and Tobago’s General Counsel, Miami, Dr Anil Ramnanan, among others.
CAL will operate the Orlando route twice a week.
AIR Jamaica last year dropped below American Airlines as the number one carrier of passengers from the United States, as new entrants to the market aggressively grabbed up market share while the national carrier — now owned and operated by Caribbean Airlines retreated from unprofitable routes.
Recently published data from the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics showed the volume of passengers travelling from the US to Jamaica increased by five per cent over year-earlier levels to 1.48 million in 2010.
Air Jamaica brought in approximately 315,370, or 21 per cent of air travellers from the US last year, compared to 428,810, or 30 per cent in 2009. At the same time, American Airlines numbers also reflected a decline — 371,580 passengers, or 26 per cent in 2009 compared to 341,940, or 23 per cent of the overall market last year, which placed it as the number one carrier.
The decline for both Air Jamaica and American, were due to growth in numbers for newcomers JetBlue, which grew its share from three per cent in 2009, when it started operating, to 10 per cent last year, and AirTran, which was almost non-existent in 2009 and which carried six per cent of all arrivals from the US in 2010.
Delta Airlines also increased its share of arrivals from 12 per cent in 2009 to 16 per cent in 2010.
AirTran’s insurgence largely reflected its ability to snap up shares in markets within which Air jamaica has ceased operations. For instance, AirTran carried 32,600 of the 46,920 passengers arriving from Baltimore last year, a route which Air Jamaica ceased servicing in June 2010, while the new carrier brought in 12,060 of the 38,860 passengers from Orlando, when the national carrier stopped flying in March 2010.
At the same time, AirTran carved out a piece of the Atlanta route for itself, claiming 16 per cent of that route for itself, even though it really translated into overall higher numbers from Atlanta as Delta — the route leader — flew in 168,060 persons in 2010, or 23,000 more passengers than the year before.
Growth in the Atlanta numbers for Delta, coupled with larger numbers arriving from New York — a route which Air Jamaica has far dominated for a long time — translated into a higher share of the Jamaica market for that airline, but JetBlue’s numbers may be a more meaningful threat to the national carrier.
JetBlue grew its share of New York from the 15 per cent of the passengers it carried in 2009 — even though it started operations in May — to 37 per cent in 2010, or right next to Air Jamaica, which carried 40 per cent of the passengers from New York, down from 60 per cent a year before.
The only other market for which Air Jamaica has maintained dominance — Fort Lauderdale — shrank overall from 218,820 arriving passengers to 193,520, which resembled the drop in arrivals from the other Florida-based international airport located in Miami, from where American alone flies. Arrivals from Miami fell from 292,180 in 2009 to 264,680 last year.
The shift in market shares not only made American overtake Air Jamaica as the number one carrier from the US, but it placed Delta at number three, above US Airways, which, with its monopoly on flights from Charlotte, carried 133,830 passengers, or 14 per cent of all persons arriving from the US last year.
Data from the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB) showed that 1.24 million of the 1.48 million arrivals in 2010 represented stopover tourists, while the growth in numbers was primarily due to higher arrivals of residence from the north-east, or more specifically from New York and Pennsylvania.
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – As REDjet plays a waiting game with authorities in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, it’s continuing to explore other markets, the latest being confirmed as St. Kitts and St. Marteen.
St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas has revealed that his Government is looking at an application from the low-budget carrier to operate on the Barbados-St. Kitts-St. Maarten route, and to another Caribbean island which he did not disclose.
And although no final decision has been made as yet, Prime Minister Douglas has already declared that the Barbados-based carrier will be welcomed to operate into and out of the twin-island federation. It has already flown into St. Kitts’ Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport on charter with the West Indies and cricket Indian cricket teams.
REDjet itself has also hinted at more routes to come soon, posting on its Facebook page yesterday: “REDjetters, we know many of you are anxious to know what our new routes are. We are eager to tell you and will do so when all arrangements are finalised. Stay tuned to Facebook, Twitter and www.flyredjet.com for the latest news!”
The Eastern Caribbean is expected to feature prominently in the new routes. In addition to St. Kitts, management of the airline also recently had preliminary discussions with representatives of the Grenada Airlift Committee as a first step to making an official application for a license to serve that country.
So far, regular commercial flights only take place between Barbados and Guyana. REDjet is awaiting approval from Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago which have both claimed there are safety issues which must be resolved before permission is granted.
REDjet, however, has maintained that the delays in granting permission have to do with protecting Trinidad and Tobago’s national carrier Caribbean Airlines (CAL) in which Jamaica has shares.
Although supporting REDjet, Prime Minister Douglas who’s also the new CARICOM Chairman, said during the just-ended Heads of Government meeting which his country hosted, that while it is important to have more affordable and reliable air transportation within the region, “we obviously must be concerned about the sensitivities in preserving those regional airlines that are plying the same route within the Community.”
“It is not a case of trying at all to prevent competition, but ensuring that the sensitivities surrounding this issue are also completely understood,” Prime Minister Douglas told reporters.
Barbados’ Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has accused Trinidad and Tobago of second- guessing the certification by his country.
“We in Barbados certified REDjet in Barbados as safe. We are being second-guessed on that. Other people certify their aircraft and we don’t second-guess them,” he said at the CARICOM Heads meeting in St. Kitts.
“I made that point at the meeting but if this is the way these issues are going to be handled, I only want to know the rules. I just want to know how people are playing the game; I can play the game as well as they can play it.”