Caribbean Airlines Is Making News – But In The Wrong Way
Here are three stories about Caribbean Airlines – the successor to BWIA (formerly known as BWIA – Better Walk If Able)
The first little blurb comes by way of our Robert, who occasionally hears the odd rumbling within the local aviation industry. The second is a letter from our old friend Adrian Loveridge, and the third is a letter from a Caribbean Airlines stranded passenger – Renee Pilgrim.
Any airline memorabilia collectors out there? Now might be a good time to make sure you’ve got a complete set of Caribbean Airlines odds and sods. Hey… you never know when this limited time offer might end!
What About Those Hot Section Inspections?
When an airline starts to fall behind, one of the first things to be pushed back are major inspections of airframes and powerplants. The bosses are always reluctant to take aircraft off line for maintenance – and especially so in the busy season. (And Cricket World Cup is certainly a busy season for Caribbean Airlines)
A little sparrow tells us that one of the Caribbean Airlines’ birds is approaching time for hot section inspections of powerplants and that some of “the boys” have been discussing whether or not this can be “put off” for a bit – until the aircraft goes back off lease.
We have a feeling that the folks in charge will do the right thing – now anyways. We’ll let you know if anyone decides that hot section inspections aren’t that important!
… submitted by Robert
Higher Regional Airfares
Some weeks ago, the media highlighted the very high airfares being offered by the carrier that has emerged out of the closed BWIA, Caribbean Airlines.
The Barbados Minister of Tourism was quick to respond and seek to assure the public that lower fares would be made available, as he appreciated the vital role Intra Caribbean travel plays in the viability of the tourism industry, especially in the long eight summer months.
Well guess what?
Not only have the fares not gone down, but they have actually risen!
Barbados/St.Maarten/Barbados is a distance of 840 miles return.
The cheapest, non-refundable fare with Caribbean airlines for travel in mid-May is US$729.10, when booked online.
An amazing BDS$0.87 cents per mile!
This compares with a cost per mile with British Airways or American Airlines of around BDS$0.22 per mile.
In fact since Minister Lynch’s assurances the lowest airfare on this route has risen by $55.
I wonder if this amount is purely co-incidental or relates to the 140% increase in the Grantley Adams departure tax or now called a service fee.
How much longer do we have to wait before we see the benefits of the Minister’s pronouncements?
Adrian Loveridge
Open Letter To The Directors And Staff Of Caribbean Airlines
Dear Mr Davies,
This is an open letter from the people of Trinidad and Tobago to you and your staff because it is quite apparent after the Carnival fiasco that there lies a serious discrepancy between the image of Caribbean Airlines and the actual product. When your new airline was launched, there were many misgivings and fears that it would turn out to be just as sordid as its predecessor BWIA, which was fondly given the acronyms of Bound to Wait In Airport, But Will It Arrive, and Better Walk If Able.
We feared that Caribbean Airlines would follow in the footsteps of BWIA and gather its own acronyms, Choose Another, Charlatan Airlines, Combative Aggression and the list can go on indefinitely. There was much apprehension but we, the citizens gave your airline a chance but now it seems that we must reconsider this decision and determine if we wish to make the same mistake twice.
How does this airline expect to make a favorable impression and even profit, from alienating the very same people it wishes to attract? Why must a paying passenger put up with service that is totally devoid of respect, common courtesy and hospitality? We, the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago, want to support our national airline but incidents like this make it extremely hard for us to actually do so as by repeatedly putting up with substandard service it appears that we are accepting of the treatment meted out to us by the employees of Caribbean Airlines. When we use the term “employees” we include the top echelons of the establishment as those at the bottom rung represent those at the top; every gruff retort, display of hostility and snide remark by the visible staff represents the entire body of employees that work for Caribbean Airlines .
This situation is quite frankly, unacceptable. Passengers were stranded for days at the Piarco airport, without monetary compensation or any form of accommodation whatsoever; many of them wondering if their jobs would be there when they returned to their resident countries. Why was this? Was this because they were mainly returning nationals and as such, your company felt that we, non-tourists, were not worthy of the respect that would be given to foreign passengers? Is that what we are to deduce from this blatant lack of respect ?
Did anyone at your airline, take into consideration that there are Trinidadians and Tobagonians who return for the carnival season and stay at hotels and not with friends and family so when these passengers are stranded, they must now dip into their pockets to finance extra nights at their previous places of accommodation. From the looks of things, it appears that there was no forethought given to this Carnival season at all as by principle, when the airline overbooked, and passengers became stranded, the onus fell on the airline to provide accommodation for those who were forced to stay longer than expected at the airport…
… continue reading this letter from Renee Pilgrim at Caribbean Net News (link here)
6 Comments
March 9, 2007 at 2:17 pm
The creation of Caribbean Airlines along with the merger of Liat and Caribbean Star has resulted in much higher airfares that ever before I was shocked to see what your cost are for the short hop to St.Martin when you put it in the right perspective for another US $ 200.00 to that fare you could be flying 8 hours to London on BA.
If this is a forward thinking step for the caribbean people let us thank our politicians for this fiasco, the other issue I would like a response to is why has Caribbean Airlines chosen to bypass Barbados in their sheduling and now require that if a Barbadian wants to get to Miami on CA they will have to overnight in Trinidad surely the Guyana / Trinidad / Barbados / Miami route must have been a profitable route for them why drop it then?Has our beloved Gov’t our Misister of Tourism fallen afoul of the Trini’s and they are responded accordingly.
March 9, 2007 at 3:07 pm
[...] post by BFP and software by Elliott [...]
March 9, 2007 at 7:55 pm
In their consideration of a suitable new name for the airline, BWIA executive overlooked the most suitable one…Continental United National Transport Service. Pity.
March 10, 2007 at 12:22 am
It’s not doing well..is it.
How they justify those prices is beyond me.
And how they expect to stay in business in the face of competition is another wonder.
There are some who feel that CA
(and its eventual,intentional demise)
is an effort to wean nationalistic Trinidadians
away from their perceived need of a national airline..
March 10, 2007 at 5:45 pm
Has the name Caribbean Airlines been registered in Barbados? If so has anyone objected to it being too similar to Caribbean Airways, an airline previously run by the Barbados Government and which I hope someone can confirm if it is still operating in Barbados but not as an airline
May 14, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Those low fares for advertising and a bad idea to fly, it is always better to get business class tickets if you have the means, atleast you are taken care of, or are they also stranded