State-owned Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL), adamant to become the premier intra-Caribbean carrier, is moving to widen its airlift influence on Caricom travel when it launches a daily service to St Lucia out of Port of Spain in two weeks.
The new Caribbean destination poses an immediate challenge to longtime Caribbean carrier LIAT and newcomer, Barbados-based Low Fares Airline (LFA) REDjet, which both operate services between both islands.
But the move does not come as a surprise as CAL chairman George Nicholas said last year his company has plans to widen the airline’s reach into the southern Caribbean by adding destinations such as St Vincent and the Grenadines and St Lucia.
There are already daily services to Barbados and Grenada. It is expected that as the other ATRs arrive in Port-of-Spain in the first half of the year, CAL would then focus on St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Fallout of this latest CAL initiative could be devastating for LIAT, overwhelmed by debt and employee problems, but continues to struggle to stay in the air.
The new service, which has a start date of Friday February 10, will be operated by the airline’s new state-of-the-art ATR-72-600 turbo prop aircraft with a 68-seat capacity.
Flight BW 434 will depart Piarco International at 1.45 pm arriving at the George F Charles airport in Castries at 2.50 pm.
Following a half-hour turnaround, the return flight (BW 435) will depart St Lucia at 3.25 pm arriving in Trinidad at 4.30 pm.
Commenting on the planned service, St Lucia’s new Minister of Tourism, Heritage and Creative Industries, Lorne Theophilus said he welcomed this new service by Caribbean Airlines, which would provide greater air access for the people of both countries and “paves the way for our people to deepen participation in events in our respective countries such as carnival, jazz and our Creole Heritage activities during the month of October.”
Robert Corbie, CAL’s acting chief executive officer, in his turn said, “The addition of this route solidifies our commitment to provide our customers with more options for travel within the Caribbean.”
He added, “St Lucia has been of strategic interest to us and we are excited to offer our CARICOM neighbours reliable scheduled airlift within the Caribbean.
“Our current offer to students, along with the added benefits of frequent flyer miles and complimentary bags will add value to and exceed service expectations.”
Minister Theophilus added, “Trinidad and Tobago has traditionally been a very important Caribbean tourism source market for St Lucia and this service by Caribbean Airlines into George F Charles airport will make it extremely attractive for Trinidadians to not only come to St Lucia for our big events, but to make St Lucia their weekend getaway destination of choice in the Eastern Caribbean.”
He said it would also provide greater travelling options for many St Lucian students pursuing tertiary education at various educational institutions in Trinidad.
“We hope that this service succeeds as this will be one more bridge built in making the dream of Caribbean economic, social and cultural integration a reality,” the minister added.
Meanwhile in an effort to put to rest the storm raised when Board member Avendenand Maharaj and his wife flew to India to join Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar for talks with Air India, chairman Nicholas told Business Day Maharaj paid the full cost of his wife’s return ticket to India and further explained he was sent to represent Nicholas primarily because he spoke the language fluently, which he (Nicholas) thought was very important.
(Source http://www.newsday.co.tt/businessday/0,154315.html)
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