Although still grappling with fallout from the disruption of its flight schedule in wake of last November’s crash landing of one its planes at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri, Fly Jamaica Airways is hopeful of resuming operations here in a couple of months, according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Captain Paul Ronald Reece.
The embattled airline had said in February that it was making plans to resume operating by the middle of this month but there had been no official word to local authorities up to yesterday.
Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) Lt. Col (ret’d) Egbert Field yesterday told Stabroek News that the agency had not received any official word from the airline on its plans to return to the skies.
He noted that the last his agency was told was that the airline was unable to operate because it did not have the full fleet of aircraft to do so.
Meanwhile, CEO of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) Ramesh Ghir, when contacted, said there has been no engagement between the airport and Fly Jamaica on its schedule to resume operations.
When Stabroek News reached out to the airline yesterday for an update on its operations, it was directed to Reece, who issued a brief statement last night. Reece said the airline is not currently operating any aircraft. “…however, we hope to restart flight operations in a couple of months,” he added.
Reece also noted that Fly Jamaica has been providing refunds to its customers. “All requests for refunds are being honoured, however, it is a process that has to be checked by our reservations and accounts staff. Some passengers would obviously like to see the process move faster, but we have to be constrained by our cash and credit card business safeguards,” he noted.
The company’s country representative had previously said that the airline had been working assiduously to meet its financial obligations to those passengers who would have requested refunds for flights that were cancelled by the airline in wake of last November’s crash landing.
At present, prospective customers are prevented from purchasing tickets from the airline’s website. A notice showing delayed flights appears on screen when users attempt to select dates for flights.
On November 9th, 2018, six people were injured when the airline’s Toronto-bound Boeing 757-200, with 118 passengers and eight crew members aboard, made an emergency landing at airport. An 86-year-old passenger died one week after, reportedly as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.
The crash put further strain on the company as its other aircraft was reportedly undergoing unscheduled maintenance and resulted in numerous flights being delayed before eventually being cancelled.
Apart from customers complaining bitterly of the poor customer service as a result, the Kingston, Jamaica-based airline was also slapped with two class action lawsuits for injuries and losses sustained in the crash landing on behalf of passengers in Canada.
