caribny wrote:

danipawa wrote:

Sky High Dominicana flew to Medellin today, 2 weekly Mondays and Fridays ERJ145 service.

Next destinations Barranquilla, St Thomas, Kingston from SDQ.

Dominica, San Juan, St Lucia, Aguadilla, down to Summer Seasonal service

I guess SJU is a competitive route so someone had to stand down. STT should be a success as Dominicans are probably the largest source of VFR among the immigrant derived populations.

303dk wrote:

caribny wrote:

danipawa wrote:

Sky High Dominicana flew to Medellin today, 2 weekly Mondays and Fridays ERJ145 service.

Next destinations Barranquilla, St Thomas, Kingston from SDQ.

Dominica, San Juan, St Lucia, Aguadilla, down to Summer Seasonal service

I guess SJU is a competitive route so someone had to stand down. STT should be a success as Dominicans are probably the largest source of VFR among the immigrant derived populations.

If they can’t make SJU work, JetBlue is going to kill them out of STT

caribny wrote:

303dk wrote:

caribny wrote:

I guess SJU is a competitive route so someone had to stand down. STT should be a success as Dominicans are probably the largest source of VFR among the immigrant derived populations.

If they can’t make SJU work, JetBlue is going to kill them out of STT

Wouldn't a nonstop STT SDQ be preferable to traveling via SJU? Giving light international schedules at STT immigration should be a breeze upon return. Plus isn't there the customs check out of STT to SJU?

B6 with multiple daily flights on the SDQ SJU will be tough, even if Sky uses its jet.

BW600 wrote:

Anybody know if BW has been affected by the B737 NG pickle fork issue? I noticed 9Y-KIN and 9Y-JMC have not been in service for a while. Their B738 fleet is up there in age and could be requiring checks.
The JFK-MBJ flight seems to be originating and ending in KIN as of recently.

caribbean484 wrote:

BW600 wrote:

Anybody know if BW has been affected by the B737 NG pickle fork issue? I noticed 9Y-KIN and 9Y-JMC have not been in service for a while. Their B738 fleet is up there in age and could be requiring checks.
The JFK-MBJ flight seems to be originating and ending in KIN as of recently.

It would be interesting to know also, but either the media or someone in parliament has to ask that question. I saw KIN back in the air today while JMC looks to be still down for heavy maintenance. With the a/cs down they had to make changes in the schedule to optimise fleet utilization, so they are not letting an a/c sit all day at MBJ for the time being.

BW600 wrote:

caribbean484 wrote:

BW600 wrote:

Anybody know if BW has been affected by the B737 NG pickle fork issue? I noticed 9Y-KIN and 9Y-JMC have not been in service for a while. Their B738 fleet is up there in age and could be requiring checks.
The JFK-MBJ flight seems to be originating and ending in KIN as of recently.

It would be interesting to know also, but either the media or someone in parliament has to ask that question. I saw KIN back in the air today while JMC looks to be still down for heavy maintenance. With the a/cs down they had to make changes in the schedule to optimise fleet utilization, so they are not letting an a/c sit all day at MBJ for the time being.

Seems like 9Y-KIN went tech in SVD today after its first flight back online. The fleet reliability has really taken a hit recently. Those Max 8 can’t come fast enough.

The JFK-MBJ flight is a tough one for BW to schedule. Optimal departure times mean an aircraft on the ground all day as a result of the FLL-MBJ flights being dropped. The alternative of routing to KIN helps with utilization but add the cost of the extra sector. No win scenario unless they could somehow use that sector to link MBJ to the rest of the network with decent connections to the Eastern Caribbean etc.

BW600 wrote:

caribbean484 wrote:

BW600 wrote:

Anybody know if BW has been affected by the B737 NG pickle fork issue? I noticed 9Y-KIN and 9Y-JMC have not been in service for a while. Their B738 fleet is up there in age and could be requiring checks.
The JFK-MBJ flight seems to be originating and ending in KIN as of recently.

It would be interesting to know also, but either the media or someone in parliament has to ask that question. I saw KIN back in the air today while JMC looks to be still down for heavy maintenance. With the a/cs down they had to make changes in the schedule to optimise fleet utilization, so they are not letting an a/c sit all day at MBJ for the time being.

Seems like 9Y-KIN went tech in SVD today after its first flight back online. The fleet reliability has really taken a hit recently. Those Max 8 can’t come fast enough.

The JFK-MBJ flight is a tough one for BW to schedule. Optimal departure times mean an aircraft on the ground all day as a result of the FLL-MBJ flights being dropped. The alternative of routing to KIN helps with utilization but add the cost of the extra sector. No win scenario unless they could somehow use that sector to link MBJ to the rest of the network with decent connections to the Eastern Caribbean etc.

Caribbean Airlines Has Positive 9 Months
The unau­dit­ed re­sults of Caribbean Air­lines Ltd for the nine months end­ing Sep­tem­ber 2019 showed earn­ings be­fore in­ter­est and tax­es of TT$121M [US$20 million], com­pris­ing of TT$153M [US$25 million] on in­ter­na­tion­al op­er­a­tions.
How­ev­er, the air­line lost TT$32M [US$ 5 million] on the do­mes­tic air-bridge.
Rev­enue for the pe­ri­od was TT$2.3B [US$ 0.4 billion], up 3.8 per cent.
https://www.guardian.co.tt/business/cal ... fa182a7e26

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestne ... x_petition

Call for CARICOM heads to respond to travel tax petition

A group calling themselves Caribbean Citizens Against High Intra-Regional Travel Taxes is calling for the heads of government in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to respond to a travel tax petition.

The group said that over the last two weeks packages containing copies of the petition bearing over 20,000 signatures were dispatched to the offices of the CARICOM heads of government and the secretariat in Guyana.

The group noted that a letter to each head of government, cogently outlining the case for dialogue on the “vexing issue of high intra-regional Caribbean travel taxes and fees” was also included in the packages.

To date, the group said, only the offices of the President of Guyana, Brigadier David Granger and Dr Keith Mitchell, Prime Minister of Grenada have acknowledged receipt of the communication.

https://www.antiguaobserver.com/regiona ... liat-deal/

Regional governments reach ‘consensus’ on LIAT deal
December 11, 2019

A new agreement has apparently been struck as the government of Barbados has apparently come off its initial stance of requesting US $40 million from the Government of Antigua and Barbuda (GOAB) to acquire most of its 49 percent shareholding in regional air carrier, LIAT (1974) Ltd.

“We have a general consensus on the way forward,” declared Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne. He attended a LIAT shareholder government’s meeting held over a week ago. He confirmed that in that meeting with Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves.

A388 wrote:

Does anyone know how Caribbean Airlines is doing on their new POS-CUR route and also what's their projection for the coming months (more flights maybe or mixing it up with their ATR72)?

A388

caribbean484 wrote:

From a reliable source they mentioned the route has performed well even in the low season, however I am unsure if they will increase flights at this time. The fleet is stretched as is but they are mentioning new routes in 2020 so we will see what they do from here.

caribny wrote:

Not a good start, especially on the GCM where KX is formidable and well entrenched. BW's excuses seem to be quite silly. This continues a well established pattern of BW's POS operations disrespecting other markets. Both Jamaicans and Guyanese have complained about this.

caribbean484 wrote:

caribny wrote:

Not a good start, especially on the GCM where KX is formidable and well entrenched. BW's excuses seem to be quite silly. This continues a well established pattern of BW's POS operations disrespecting other markets. Both Jamaicans and Guyanese have complained about this.

True, I'm not sure why the last minute cancellation to HAV, but it seems related to a/c shortage. You don't treat customers that way at least be honest. Not sure why corporations just communicate these points to customers. One 737 is down because of the pickle fork issue and an ATR is still down from the incident earlier this year so the fleet is stretched. The current winter schedule is packed and little room for error as we saw they have temporarily positioned flights between MBJ-KIN.

Good news is GCM started today so hopefully HAV is not far behind.

CAL will be getting more ATRs next year with the first one arriving in January.

gunnerman wrote:

Passengers were angered by the failure of Caribbean Airlines to launch its twice-weekly KIN-HAV service yesterday (Friday). The route had initially been scheduled to start on 6 November. No explanation has been given for stopping the launch.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/lead-stories/20191214/grounded-caribbean-airlines-direct-flights-kingston-havana-fail-take

caribny wrote:

Not a good start, especially on the GCM where KX is formidable and well entrenched. BW's excuses seem to be quite silly. This continues a well-established pattern of BW's POS operations disrespecting other markets. Both Jamaicans and Guyanese have complained about this.

caribny wrote:

caribbean484 wrote:

caribny wrote:

Not a good start, especially on the GCM where KX is formidable and well entrenched. BW's excuses seem to be quite silly. This continues a well established pattern of BW's POS operations disrespecting other markets. Both Jamaicans and Guyanese have complained about this.

True, I'm not sure why the last minute cancellation to HAV, but it seems related to a/c shortage. You don't treat customers that way at least be honest. Not sure why corporations just communicate these points to customers. One 737 is down because of the pickle fork issue and an ATR is still down from the incident earlier this year so the fleet is stretched. The current winter schedule is packed and little room for error as we saw they have temporarily positioned flights between MBJ-KIN.

Good news is GCM started today so hopefully HAV is not far behind.

CAL will be getting more ATRs next year with the first one arriving in January.

Will the additional ATRs be for the TAB route or do they have new routes in mind. A big hole in intra Caribbean travel is POS SDQ.

dominicl316 wrote:

LI is also rumored to be restarting service to STX.

dominicl316 wrote:

According to InterCaribbean's new schedule, their STX and STT service out of EIS will now be starting Feb 1. It also appears as if InterCarib is discontinuing EIS-SXM in January. Seems odd, since many people
were looking forward to using their services to get from the USVI to SXM via EIS.

caribny wrote:

Still think that Inter Carib should look at SKB especially now with their USVI routes. LI has changed its SKB service no longer offering an evening ANU SKB service (the flight is nonstop BGI SKB and then ending in ANU) so its quite difficult to fly there from the USVI. Not everyone wants to trust an air taxi service.

gunnerman wrote:

TK is not going to fly to POS.

2travel2know2 wrote:

POS report:
It’s time CM adds capacity or extra frequencies to POS. Looked like there was even connecting traffic from MIA and JFK on the flight I took. Evening flight departure time doesn’t allow connections from all evening arrival flights.
It’s about time BW trow numbers for POS-HOU (if it doesn’t want to go head to head with UA on POS-IAH), the Trinidad - Texas O/D market seems to be there.
Has TK started to study IST-POS? IST-CCS-POS-IST could be very very interesting...
What a neat airport, I pleasantly surprised.

Brickell305 wrote:

gunnerman wrote:

TK is not going to fly to POS.

Exactly. On another note, I’ve noticed that AA I scheduling their Christmas week third daily MIA-POS flight to depart MIA at 22:58 and arrive in POS at 03:38 with the return from POS leaving at 03:45 and arriving in MIA at 06:51. So for those who thought the MIA-GEO schedule was brutal, the third daily POS seems much worse.

gunnerman wrote:

Brickell305 wrote:

gunnerman wrote:

TK is not going to fly to POS.

Exactly. On another note, I’ve noticed that AA I scheduling their Christmas week third daily MIA-POS flight to depart MIA at 22:58 and arrive in POS at 03:38 with the return from POS leaving at 03:45 and arriving in MIA at 06:51. So for those who thought the MIA-GEO schedule was brutal, the third daily POS seems much worse.

These flights run up to 5 January. I see them as being operated with the planes and crew that AA has available, and AA is quite happy to make full use of both. I think passengers will be happy as well, better to fly ugly hours to meet family and friends rather then not fly at all.

gunnerman wrote:

TK is not going to fly to POS.

BW600 wrote:

Seems like AA is having some issues on the JFK-GEO route. With full flights southbound, their B738 seems to have difficulty doing the flight non stop. Three flights since launch had to stop at SJU to refuel. BW has no difficulty but its seat counts are only 150 on their B738.

BW600 wrote:

Seems like AA is having some issues on the JFK-GEO route. With full flights southbound, their B738 seems to have difficulty doing the flight non stop. Three flights since launch had to stop at SJU to refuel. BW has no difficulty but its seat counts are only 150 on their B738.

gunnerman wrote:

As a reminder AA launched its year-round Saturday CLT-GND service on 21 December. Flights are operated with the 128-seat 319 (8 in Business class, 120 in Economy class). These flights complement AA's daily MIA-GND. The other scheduled flights from north America are by B6 (daily from JFK) and AC (thrice-weekly from YYZ).

AEROFAN wrote:

gunnerman wrote:

As a reminder AA launched its year-round Saturday CLT-GND service on 21 December. Flights are operated with the 128-seat 319 (8 in Business class, 120 in Economy class). These flights complement AA's daily MIA-GND. The other scheduled flights from north America are by B6 (daily from JFK) and AC (thrice-weekly from YYZ).

I do not understand how AA can have a daily JFK-GND flight and could not maintain JFK-BGI. How is this possible? I remember the days when PanAM and AA plied the JFK-BGI route daily.

LimaFoxTango wrote:

BW600 wrote:

Seems like AA is having some issues on the JFK-GEO route. With full flights southbound, their B738 seems to have difficulty doing the flight non stop. Three flights since launch had to stop at SJU to refuel. BW has no difficulty but its seat counts are only 150 on their B738.

Clearly AA underestimated that route. Nothing less than a 757 should be used, particularly during the Christmas, Easter and summer peak periods.

dominicl316 wrote:

caribny wrote:

Still think that Inter Carib should look at SKB especially now with their USVI routes. LI has changed its SKB service no longer offering an evening ANU SKB service (the flight is nonstop BGI SKB and then ending in ANU) so its quite difficult to fly there from the USVI. Not everyone wants to trust an air taxi service.

Air Sunshine may fit the description of an "air taxi service" but they are quite popular with the USVI Kittitian-Nevisian community. You can't beat a 35 minute flight on a B1900. Sometimes they also use the C402 out of STX, which is slightly slower, at 45 minutes

baje427 wrote:

BW600 wrote:

Seems like AA is having some issues on the JFK-GEO route. With full flights southbound, their B738 seems to have difficulty doing the flight non stop. Three flights since launch had to stop at SJU to refuel. BW has no difficulty but its seat counts are only 150 on their B738.

Interesting re the diversions the innaguaral flight was also delayed by 12 hours. I assume this will be a Max route once they are airworhthy.

Brickell305 wrote:

LimaFoxTango wrote:

BW600 wrote:

Seems like AA is having some issues on the JFK-GEO route. With full flights southbound, their B738 seems to have difficulty doing the flight non stop. Three flights since launch had to stop at SJU to refuel. BW has no difficulty but its seat counts are only 150 on their B738.

Clearly AA underestimated that route. Nothing less than a 757 should be used, particularly during the Christmas, Easter and summer peak periods.

I think it’s just a case of AA simply not having enough 757s to go around. IIRC, JFK only sees the 757 on AA out of DFW once daily now.

caribny wrote:

Do they have any choice? And being an air taxi are they reliable, or do they adjust service and planes based on last minute demand? They don't always use the B1900 and that smaller plane is a real problem for some people.

2travel2know2 wrote:

Brickell305 wrote:

LimaFoxTango wrote:

Clearly AA underestimated that route. Nothing less than a 757 should be used, particularly during the Christmas, Easter and summer peak periods.

I think it’s just a case of AA simply not having enough 757s to go around. IIRC, JFK only sees the 757 on AA out of DFW once daily now.

Doesn’t AA have an spare wide-body sitting on JFK tarmac between JFK-South America red-eyes flights it could deploy on a day-time JFK-GEO-JFK rotation?

Brickell305 wrote:

2travel2know2 wrote:

Brickell305 wrote:

I think it’s just a case of AA simply not having enough 757s to go around. IIRC, JFK only sees the 757 on AA out of DFW once daily now.

Doesn’t AA have an spare wide-body sitting on JFK tarmac between JFK-South America red-eyes flights it could deploy on a day-time JFK-GEO-JFK rotation?

AFAIK, the only SA rotations they have from JFK are GRU and EZE and they r flown with a 77W and 772 respectively. Those are both way too much plane for GEO. In fact AA’s entire long haul portfolio is 777s so a widebody on JFK-GEO is out of the question IMO

ABEguy wrote:

Looks like they got the point. Starting Christmas Day, the JFK-GEO leg is blocked off to 140, and the GEO-JFK is blocked to 157. They badly need another AC on this segment but as mentioned above, no spare 75’s sitting around. The Max could probably carry the full payload but who knows when that’ll fly.

LimaFoxTango wrote:

How is BW able to do this route seemingly with no issues? Or is it we're not hearing issues about them?