The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has turned down an application from Caribbean Airlines (CAL) to fly passengers, cargo and mail between Barbados, Grenada, St Lucia and New York as well as scheduled services between Barbados and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, according to the Caribbean Media Corporation.
Director of the Office of International Aviation in the US Paul L Gretch handed down the decision on Friday, CMC said.
It is unclear what the fate of planned direct flights between Guyana and New York would be. These flights to start in July were announced in Georgetown earlier this month by CAL Chairman George Nicholas.
Gretch also advised CAL that permission had been granted to operate services between the US and Jamaica and New York and Grenada.
CMC said that in September 2010, CAL having assumed responsibility for Air Jamaica applied for an exemption to undertake various flights previously operated by it.
“We have decided to grant CAL’s request, for a one-year term, to provide scheduled foreign air transportation of persons, property and mail from points behind Jamaica, via Jamaica and intermediate points, to a point or points in the United States and beyond,” the US DOT said in a statement.
“Charter foreign air transportation of persons, property and mail between any point or points in the United States and any foreign point or points, provided that, except with respect to cargo charters, such service constitutes part of a continuous operation, with or without a change of aircraft, that includes services to Jamaica for the purpose of carrying local traffic between Jamaica and the United States, and scheduled foreign air transportation of persons, property and mail between Grenada and New York,” were also approved.
The statement added that“With respect to CAL’s request to serve Barbados and St Lucia, we cannot make the public interest findings necessary to grant this extra-bilateral authority,” Gretch said.
“Air Jamaica is not currently servicing either point, and CAL has not demonstrated that there is an immediate public need for these services in the circumstances presented. We will thus dismiss its request to serve these points from the United States.”
Aviation officials, according to CMC, said that CAL was not a designated Barbados or St Lucia carrier and this significantly weakened its case. They also said that the only way it was likely to get the Americans to reconsider was for CAL to apply to Barbados and St Lucia authorities for this designation.
Guyana might also have to do this if direct flights are to work, sources say. When he was in Georgetown, Nicholas said that this July the direct flights would be made three times a week.
“This will be the first dedicated service…” Nicholas said, to the country now that Caribbean Airlines is under new management. A “next generation” airplane has been bought for the flight and is equipped with a triple seven cockpit with full catering, Nicholas added.
The direct flight will accommodate 154 persons and according to Nicholas, the fare will be “pretty good”. The plane will be named “The Spirit of Guyana”, a first for the country, Nicholas added.
The naming also represent the “airline’s new direction”.
According to Trinidad Newsday, CAL, through its head of corporate communications Laura Asbjorsen said the airline was not prepared to comment on a document it had not yet seen.
