Come April next year, travellers to New York will have three options for direct flights and lower fares with yesterday’s announcement by JetBlue of the start of operations to Guyana.
There had been a number of reports that the major US low-budget carrier would begin service at some point to Guyana and the formal announcement came yesterday morning.
It announced a new nonstop service between New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri.
According to a Business Wire release, flights will operate daily on JetBlue’s new A321neo aircraft beginning April 2, 2020 with seats available for purchase in the US beginning yesterday.
“Guyana service introduces a diverse and underserved destination to the JetBlue route map which will benefit both leisure travelers, as well as those visiting friends and relatives,” said Andrea Lusso, director route planning. “Just as we’ve done in our South American markets in Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, we’re introducing a new, low fare high-quality choice to travelers in Guyana.”
“The Government of Guyana is delighted to welcome the services of JetBlue to Guyana,” said, Guyana’s Minister of Pub-lic Infrastructure, David Patterson, according to the release.
“The introduction of this immensely popular low cost carrier will see lower ticket prices to George-town and provide travelers with an opportunity to fly on an airline of choice to their favorite destination. This agreement with JetBlue is timely and comes on the heels of continued and sustainable growth in several sectors of our economy, including, service, tourism, mining and oil and gas”, he added.
“We are extremely excited to welcome JetBlue’s new non-stop services from New York-JFK to Georgetown, Guy-ana,” said Brian T. Mullis, Director of the Guyana Tourism Authority. “2019 has been quite a year – winning five international awards, increased route options to Europe, new community-led and owned tourism product development, increased stakeholder collaboration, growing demand in our target markets and now JetBlue improving connectivity with one of our core markets – North America.”
The release said that Guyana becomes the fourth country in South America JetBlue serves and grows the airline’s presence in Latin America and Caribbean. The new nonstop flight between New York City and Georgetown will be made possible by the A321neo’s extended range and fuel efficiency.
The planned schedule between New York (JFK) and Georgetown (GEO) is as follows:
Beginning April 2, 2020
JFK – GEO Flight #1965 11:55 p.m. – 5:58 a.m. (+1)
GEO – JFK Flight #1966 7:20 a.m. – 1:09 p.m.
Caribbean Airlines (CAL) has been the major operator on the New York route for many years and does have a direct flight. However, passengers have frequently complained about its fares particularly in peak periods.
CAL was already set to face competition from major US carrier, American Airlines which had announced in April this year that direct flights between JFK, New York and CJIA, Timehri would begin on December 18 this year. American had begun direct flights between Guyana and Miami in November of 2018.
Growing fleet
According to the Business Wire press release, the A321neo – the newest aircraft type to join JetBlue’s growing fleet of more than 250 aircraft – has a 20% increase in fuel efficiency which supports some 500 nautical miles of extended range.
“The longer-range flying capabilities of the A321neo open up a host of new markets which JetBlue’s existing fleet could not serve with nonstop flights, including recently announced service between New York-JFK and Guayaquil, Ecuador, launching this December”, the release said. Addition-ally, each JetBlue Airbus A321neo will be powered by two Pratt & Whitney GTF engines, which have a smaller noise footprint and lower operating costs when compared with the usual engines.
“Inside the aircraft, JetBlue’s award-winning comfort and connectivity will be the focus of the onboard customer experience. The A321neo will feature the Collins Meridian seat – which is the widest seat available for the single aisle Airbus family of aircraft – with enhanced cushion comfort, adjustable headrests, power connections at every seat and the most legroom in coach (b). Inflight
entertainment will be powered by Thales AVANT and ViaSat-2 connectivity. With this system – featuring 10.1 inch, 1080P high definition screens, more than 100 channels of live television with DVR-like pause and rewind functionality, picture-in-picture function and more – JetBlue will offer customers expanded entertainment choices in nearly every region the airline flies (c). JetBlue is the only major U.S. airline with seatback entertainment screens at every seat on every aircraft”, the press release added.
JetBlue, the release said, is New York’s Hometown Airline, and a leading carrier in Boston, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood, Los Angeles (Long Beach), Orlando, and San Juan. It carries more than 42 million customers a year to 100+ cities in the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America with an average of more than 1,000 daily flights.
Yesterday, the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) welcomed the JetBlue announcement. It said that it will work with JetBlue to ensure they comply with the regulatory requirements to bring their planned start date of April 2020 to fruition.
In a letter to the Director General of GCAA, Egbert Field, the GCAA said that JetBlue has documented their intended route, proposed aircraft, frequency of flights and start date.
“In the coming weeks, the GCAA will meet JetBlue officials and will assign a team comprising various technical officers to conduct safety, security and economic assessment of JetBlue’s proposed operations in Guyana”, the GCAA said.
