A report out of Kingston has indicated that a Jamaican airline, Fly Jamaica, has announced its intention to commence operations between Jamaica and Guyana.
The announcement comes amidst separate reports of moves by Jamaican and Trinidadian entrepreneurs to invest in an airline carrier to tap into the South American market.
Up until now few additional details have been disclosed on the proposed new route between the two CARICOM countries though a report published in the March 21 issue of the Jamaica Gleaner referring to Fly Jamaica as the country’s “newest airline” said that the company’s “principals are Guyanese” while it is “majority-owned and controlled by Jamaicans” and that it is expected to commence service using its 757-200 aircraft with a capacity of 200 passengers this month.
The March Gleaner report had quoted the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) Director of Flight Operations, Nari William-Singh as saying that the authorities there were in the “documentation and evaluation stages” of the process preceding the commencement of Fly Jamaica’s service and that the flight and cabin crews were completing their training preparatory to “a demonstration flight by the carrier.”
When it commences service, Fly Jamaica will reportedly operate between Kingston and Georgetown with services to New York’s John F. Kennedy airport and Toronto and is being seen as providing yet more competition on the Jamaica and Guyana route for the longest serving regional airline, Caribbean Airlines.
Reports that Fly Jamaica is entering the regional market coincides with the disclosure by the low-cost regional airline REDJet that its inability to compete with state-subsidized airlines in the region has forced its indefinite closure though the airline’s Chairman, Robbie Burns announced subsequently that moves were underway to have service resume within sixty days..
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News of the likely new service between Jamaica and Guyana was again alluded to in the Wednesday April 11 issue of the Jamaica Observer as part of a report on a broader move by regional investors to establish stronger air links between the Caribbean and South America, particularly Brazil.
The Observer quotes Brazilian Ambassador to Jamaica Antonio F. Da Costa e Silva Neto as saying at a recent Private Sector Organization of Jamaica (PSOJ) meeting that an investment group has specifically set its sights on a potential 200-million air passenger market on the route between Brazil and the Caribbean. The Observer quotes the Brazilian diplomat as saying that the idea behind the proposed new service “is to fly from Sao Paulo each day to a different Caribbean destination,” a move triggered by an assessment that Jamaica, one of the Caribbean’s major tourist economies had not done enough to tap into Brazil’s lucrative tourist market, a circumstance which the Brazilian diplomat has attributed to a lack of direct flights between the two countries. Between January and November 2011 only 1,431 Brazilians visited Jamaica, according to the report.
While the proposed new service is reportedly still in its exploratory stages the Observer refers to a business plan alluded to by the Ambassador which has provided a new idea about how the proposed venture can be made a reality. An existing Jamaican airline is reportedly part of the discussions on the proposed new service and the Jamaica Observer quotes “an airline industry source” as saying that other Jamaican entrepreneurs “are stepping up to the plate.”
