Comments on: Air Jamaica’s Death Spiral Completes on April 12

By: Saturday Links #88 - Things in the Sky

Saturday Links #88 - Things in the Sky — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:50:48 +0000

[...] Jamaica is going away on April 12th, when operations pass over to Caribbean [...]

By: PHLLAX

PHLLAX — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:51:27 +0000

Good riddance! It’s about time the GOJ forefitted their national pride and gave up the pipe dream of having the JM name survive with the hub at MBJ and do the right thing! CAL has been profitable almost since the beginning, and their service is consistent.

The only thing left to do to really create a regional Caribbean carrier is to incorporate LIAT into the fold.

As far as the dual hub structure, it should work. Most people in the US don’t know where T&T are, let alone that CAL exists. Jamaicq and JM are well known. It should help to get people to some of the Southern Islands that aren’t as easily accessible these days.

By: CF

CF — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:43:18 +0000

David SFeastbay wrote:

One minute wasn’t it Spirit wanting to take them over and the next Caribbean Airlines is in. Did I blink and miss something?

Yep, Spirit, or at least Spirit's parent, was said to be interested but my guess is they walked away when they saw what a mess it was there.

By: David SFeastbay

David SFeastbay — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:54:07 +0000

I wonder since Caribbean Airlines will be the ‘flag carrier’ of Jamaica if they will have to keep a certain level of service to certain cities or if they will be free to service which ever cities they decide may be best.

With BW based in Trinidad which is the bottom of the caribbean and Jamaica at the top, it gives BW a good chance to use MBJ and/or KIN as a hub between the USA and all of the caribbean. They could then compete better with what AA does with it’s hub in SJU.

By: miniliq

miniliq — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 22:05:16 +0000

Much as I like the idea of using POS as a hub for South America I believe it’s unlikely to happen. I flew POS to GIG many times and always had to go via MIA on AA (now there’s an option of IAH on CO), which makes it a very long trip, but I doubt there is enough demand for direct flights. POS is very close to CCS, but that was a miserable interline connection. Caribbean is going to have to rebuild its longhaul traffic to JFK, YYZ and LGW, but I don’t see how Jamaica is going to help.

By: Air Jamaica’s Death Spiral Completes on April 12 | Island Tips

Air Jamaica’s Death Spiral Completes on April 12 | Island Tips — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:15:01 +0000

[...] See the article here: Air Jamaica’s Death Spiral Completes on April 12 [...]

By: Bryan B

Bryan B — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:13:10 +0000

I always thought that JM had the most colorful livery. I regret that I never was able to fly them. I considered using them for a trip to Montego Bay in May 2009. I was debating between a flight from DTW-MBJ via FLL on Northwest and Air Jamaica; and between a DTW-MBJ flight via ATL on Delta.

The NW/JM flight via FLL was actually less expensive; however the interline connection in FLL would have involved connecting from Terminal 2 to Terminal 4 at FLL. I wasn’t too fond of having to catch the shuttle bus to switch terminals at FLL, so we decided to fly DL instead. I’m sure that many others felt the same way as well. I wonder how much interline traffic JM got at their U.S gateways at BWI, FLL, ORD, JFK and PHL?

By: Davester

Davester — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:37:50 +0000

Aaah…the glory days of the old BWIA and Air Jamaica. These guys suffered in part because of competition from US based carriers offering cheaper and somewhat more reliable service to the islands. As an islander, I can tell you that we all liked that fares went down (generally speaking) after more carriers began service to the islands in the mid 90′s. Air Jamaica particularly suffered when Spirit started cheap service from Florida to Jamaica.

BWIA (partially reincarnated as Caribbean) had a flight back in the 80′s that left Jamaica and hopped on Puerto Rico, possibly Dominican Republic, Barbados, Antigua, and then eventually to Trinidad. We then had a 5 hour layover (between 1 am and 6 am) before we could fly on to Guyana in South America. My first transatlantic flight was from Trinidad to London on BWIA in the middle row of a twin aisle jet.

Maybe all of this means that Caribbean will absorb Air Jamaica and return to the glory days of BWIA. I doubt that though. Maybe Branson should snap them up and call them Virgin Caribbean. That would be something.

By: SEAN

SEAN — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:19:23 +0000

Nervous? Yes. First time? No I’ve been nervous lots of times. And boy that does apply here.

By: David SFeastbay

David SFeastbay — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:19:23 +0000

I just read about this yesterday and the CEO said they would operate their existing fleet for 6 months and during the transition all existing reservations would be honored and the JM code will remain in use.

Caribbean Airlines will become the designated flag carrier of Jamica. Seems odd to have a ‘flag carrier’ when that airline is based in another country.

One minute wasn’t it Spirit wanting to take them over and the next Caribbean Airlines is in. Did I blink and miss something?