REDjet, which bills itself as the Caribbean‘s first low fare airline, is set to launch its operations here within a month and the investment is expected to create “significant” job opportunities across the region.
Chairman and CEO of REDjet, Ian Burns during an interview with this newspaper yesterday, noted that the airline is working towards launching its first flight, a Barbados-Trinidad connection, on May 8 and two days later between Guyana and Barbados. Burns said that the airline, which is based in Barbados, is now awaiting the relevant green-light in the form of aviation certification from the authorities within the territories where it will operate before operations begin.
REDjet flights will also operate between Barbados and Jamaica and Burns noted that the company has completed all the required test flights within the four countries where the company plans to operate.
He said that the company has been granted a provisional licence from the Government of Guyana and the carrier will operate four weekly flights to Guyana from Barbados from May 10.
He noted that REDjet’s desire is to expand to more routes in time from these shores, while adding that “we want to make a serious investment in Guyana and aviation here and we want to fly from here a lot.” Burns noted that Guyana is viewed as an exciting market, similar to Ireland, his country of birth. He explained that as in Ireland, many persons migrate from these shores to find jobs overseas. “We have a lot of economic migrants here,” he said. He added that up to 1992, air travel was expensive between Ireland and England and at the time, most travellers, most of them being working class individuals, could not afford to travel by air because of the high fares. But the advent of low fare airlines post-1992 saw the 5 flights per day rate between the two nations rising to as much as 58 flights today.
He noted that in terms of jobs, the workforce locally will increase and while he could not give an estimated figure, Burns noted that “out of every quarter million travellers brings 250 to 300 jobs, so that’s the kind of scale low fare airlines have… it has the capacity to increase the GDP of a country by 2 to 4% and that is for countries that are less developed.”
He said that the key to the airline business is to have markets. “For us, it’s that all of our planes go home every night and if we get more routes we could base here (in Guyana), that’s the real benefit from a Guyanese point of view, to base planes here would bring benefits to the country,” he noted.
Being the first airline with an “all jet” service in the Caribbean and low airfare, Burns noted that each route will cost US$ 9.99% one way, exclusive of taxes and charges and he noted that “it’s a new model to the Caribbean which has been tried and tested around the world.”
He said that the “most successful model” for any airline sees persons being given an opportunity to fly, while adding that “it stimulates travel, growth and it’s good for the customer.” More importantly, he noted the model would be beneficial to the tourism sectors in the region as well as “the social fabric of countries.”
Revolutionising
He termed the advent of the low cost airline as “revolutionising the air travel industry” as well as “a war on high air fares.” The Irish investor noted too that the Caribbean is the only region around the world without a low fare airline and, according to him, his investment in the sector “is because we were consumers and found it very expensive.”
He said that one of the founding reasons behind REDjet came from his son, a co- founder in the entity, whom he noted was working as an intern with telecommunications giant Digicel in the region. He said his son studied the recurring complaints of lack of travel, connectivity and immigration regulations such as visas and he realised that “it became obvious that the missing link was a low fare airline.”
“We started our feasibility study way back in October 2006 and completed it in May 2007 and went to Jamaica to try to launch from there in September 2007,” Burns said. But he noted that a change in government there as well as the plight of the trouble-hit Air Jamaica saw policies being changed and the company regrouped and moved to Barbados, where an opportunity presented itself.
Burns admitted that he was inspired by Digicel and its ability to expand in the Caribbean. He said that the conditions available within the aviation industry are similar to those which Digicel found when that company launched its services in the region several years ago.
He said that the REDjet is for the Caribbean. “We are pan-Caribbean. For the Caribbean, our primary aim is to help Caribbean people whether they live in their own country or abroad… to be able to travel back home to their own countries or from where they are living or working.”
A direct spin-off of the investment, he noted, would come from inter- regional tourism, which he said has fallen by over 25% in recent years. He stated that the figure was directly correlated to the price of fares and the lack of additional capacity. He said that the company believed in listening to the consumers and answering their questions while trying to meet their demands.
The company will operate two McDonnell Douglas (MD82) aircraft, which Burns described as the “workhorse of the low fares airlines.” He said that the aircraft was built to turn around quickly and while it can hold 169 passengers, REDjet will carry 149 to accommodate baggage and quick turnaround times between destinations.
“The aircraft were actually built as low cost and extremely comfortable with the engines at the back,” he noted. He added that the company’s 92 employees come from 14 nationalities, many of whom worked with international airlines with years of experience to their names.
REDjet flights will depart Grantley Adams International Airport as early as 7 and return at the end of their daily flights by 11 pm.
As of today, the travelling public can log onto the company’s website at www.flyREDjet.com to make bookings and view the schedule of flights and prices.
