CAL to launch new multi-stop flights to Puerto Rico

Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) plane mid-flight. PHOTO COURTESY WORLDAIRLINENEWS.COM
Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) plane mid-flight. PHOTO COURTESY WORLDAIRLINENEWS.COM

In line with its mandate to improve connectivity throughout the region, Caribbean Airlines (CAL) is pursuing expansion plans to provide or expand service on a number of inter-island routes. Those include a number of new flights from Piarco to San Juan, Puerto Rico that could begin soon after borders reopen and the necessary approvals are in hand.

Pending US government approval, the new service to San Juan could include as many as four multiple-stop flights – known in the aviation industry as a “milk run” – which will help improve travel links across a number of Caribbean countries.

It is not immediately clear whether CAL’s plans for the new routes include a daily service, but each flight will originate in Piarco with stop-overs in Dominica, Barbados, and depending on the day of the week, connections from Barbados to Antigua or Tortola before landing in San Juan.

In an application filed with the US Department of Transportation on Wednesday, CAL is also seeking authorisation for two alternative routes that include stops in St Maarten and St Kitts. The official filing indicated that all of its flights under the application would begin and end in Trinidad but overnight in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The national carrier's regional expansion has been years in the making.

In 2018, it began twice-weekly flights to Cuba. Last year, it increased service between Kingston and Barbados and also started operations between Kingston and the Cayman Islands.

If all goes well with its plans for new multiple-connection service to Puerto Rico, the airline could recoup some of the profits it lost as the coronavirus shut borders and forced the company to ground its international fleet.

In its application to the US Department of Transportation, CAL said its proposed flights to San Juan will help reverse a decline in traffic to eastern and north Caribbean countries after Hurricane Maria ravaged the territory in 2017.

“CAL anticipates it will improve the Dominica market to 2017 pre-Maria levels of approximately 32,000 passengers per annum,” the document explained.

Additionally, it expects the move will boost traffic to St Maarten, Antigua and Tortola.

CAL’s application asserted that there were no US carriers that service a route from TT via intermediary points to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It also said no US carriers serviced either Dominica or Tortola on their own aircraft for any route.

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