Caribbean Airlines (CAL) yesterday announced that beginning May 5, it will add a fourth weekly non-stop service to John F Kennedy Airport, New York.
The announcement comes in wake of the recent decision by Delta Airlines to bring its service to an end in Guyana.
CAL said in a statement that the service will be operated by the company’s 767-300 ER and will also be joined on May 10 by a second weekly non-stop service to Toronto.
Speaking in the statement, Caribbean Airlines CEO Robert Corbie said, “We have responded proactively to the need to fill the void created by Delta’s upcoming pull out of service from Guyana and will continue to demonstrate our commitment to the Guyanese and Diaspora passengers.”
Corbie said that Guyana continues to be a very important market for the airline. “Our passengers count on the superior value we offer as well as the reliability we have proven over the years,” he said. He said that with summer approaching, there will be another additional daily flight added to the New York route.
The statement said that Caribbean Airlines operate a core schedule of 85 flights per week from Cheddi Jagan International to the Caribbean and North America.
On February 14, Delta Airlines confirmed that it will no longer offer its service to Guyana effective May 6 of this year. Delta has been operating direct flights between Georgetown and New York since 2008.
“Delta Airlines will close its station in Georgetown, Guyana discontinuing flights between the John F Kennedy International Airport and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, effective May 6th, 2013 due to poor performance of the route,” Sarah Lora, General Manager, Corporate Communications in Latin America and Caribbean had told Stabroek News.
She went on to say that although Delta would prefer to continue serving the market, flights between Georgetown and New York’s JFK International Airport had experienced a significant decline in passenger loads and revenues for the past 18 months, leading to unsustainable losses.
Delta’s exit is a blow for airlift into the country following the collapse of EZjet last year which had also serviced the New York to Georgetown route. The departure of Delta leaves Caribbean Airlines – recently named as Guyana’s flag carrier – with a monopoly on the route. Whenever a monopoly has occurred in the past, airfares have tended to move up.
