NEW AIRLINE: REDjet Prepares for Caribbean Launch

New Caribbean low-fare carrier REDJet is set to launch operations this month with flights linking Bridgetown, Barbados; Georgetown, Guyana; Kingston, Jamaica and Port of Spain, Trinidad. The airline has set May 8 as its provisional start date although it was still awaiting its final certification and licences as The HUB closed for press this week. The start-up has already taken delivery of two McDonnell Douglas MD-82s configured in a 149-seat layout and will use these on four intra-Caribbean routes with fares being advertised from $9.99 each way excluding taxes and charges. Around 15 per cent of its fares are expected to be made available at this low rate, increasing to $29.99 per sector and then at $10 intervals as more bookings for each flight are received.

REDJet hopes that by offering low-fares that will on average be 60 per cent cheaper than those currently offered, it will be able to stimulate the market, highlighting that statistics show that only ten per cent of people from the Caribbean actually take flights. Its management team argues that this is due to high fares in the region. “All the evidence points to air fares,” says Ian Burns, founder of the start-up.

“They have gone up and the amount of people travelling has gone down. These two facts are irrefutable and that has been the case for the last five years,” he added. “What we are bringing is a revolution in terms of low airfares. The region has always suffered from high fares that make travelling prohibitive.”

Regional carrier LIAT and Caribbean Airlines already provide services on two of these routes, although REDjet will be the sole operator on the proposed Trinidad – Jamaica link which has previously been served by Caribbean Airlines but is not currently part of its network.

Its launch route between Barbados and Trinidad is the busiest of the four it initially plans to serve. In the past year an estimated 100,000 O&D passengers travelled between Grantley Adams International Airport and Port of Spain’s Piarco International. Caribbean Airlines dominates this market offering 27 frequencies a week, including a daily Boeing 737-800 rotation, and has a 71 per cent share of the traffic. LIAT offers seven flights per week using its Dash 8 turboprops. Despite the strong demand yields are relatively weak on this route with fares averaging $116 each way.

Between Barbados and Georgetown Cheddi Jagan International, LIAT will be REDjet’s only non-stop competitor. It carried an estimated 33,000 O&D passengers on its twice daily Dash 8 flights in the past year, although around a further 15,000 passengers are thought to have used other in-direct flights between the two destinations, the majority with Caribbean Airlines via Port of Spain.

REDJet’s proposed route from Barbados to Kingston’s Norman Manley Airport on the island of Jamaica is where fares are currently at their highest. Caribbean Airlines currently offers a weekly service and carried an estimated 29,000 O&D passengers in the past year, each paying an average of $370 each way. A further 1,000 passengers are thought to have flown on the route with American Airlines via Miami International.

Looking ahead the airline plans to expand its low-cost model across the Caribbean, Latin America and eventually the United States. However, any plans to serve the US will have to be put on hold after the Federal Aviation Administration downgraded Barbados to Category I status following a recent audit.