PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Caribbean Airlines (CAL) is close to adding new routes to its daily schedule using Dash-8 aircraft in direct competition with regional carrier LIAT, informed sources said here today.
An official who spoke with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorised to speak to the Press, said CAL is planning to operate regularly scheduled Dash-8 flights between Trinidad, Grenada, St. Vincent and Barbados.
The official said plans were well advanced and flights could commence as early as February or March.
The official explained that CAL has already trained it pilots to land at the E.T. Joshua Airport in St. Vincent as, unlike LIAT pilots, they were not accustomed to landing there.
Late last year, former CAL chief executive officer, Captain Ian Brunton, said that the Trinidad-based airline would begin twice weekly return services from Trinidad to Grenada and New York.
Last month, the Trinidad and Tobago government gave the green light for the state-owned CAL to spend US$200 million on purchasing nine aircraft from the French–based manufacturer ATR ending weeks of disagreement between the Transport and Works Minister Austin Jack Warner and the CAL board of directors.
The Kamla Persad Bissessar government has also sanctioned the agreement reached with the cash strapped Air Jamaica last year.
Under the agreement, the Jamaica government owns 16 per cent of CAL as part of the conditions for the CAL taking over the lucrative routes of the Air Jamaica. The deal also allows for Trinidad and Tobago agreeing to a US$300 million transition plan for CAL to acquire and operate six Air Jamaica aircraft and eight of its routes.
LIAT, whose major shareholders are the governments of Barbados, St. Vincent and Antigua and Barbuda, enjoys an almost virtual monopoly on inter-regional flights. (CMC)
