CAL ‘not ready’ for delayed Max 8 planes
(CNS): Cayman Airways Ltd (CAL) CEO Fabian Whorms has said the airline is not ready to take delivery of the two additional Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft, given the limited service it is currently running. With the short-term, and even medium-term, future of tourism uncertain, Whorms said CAL is in talks with Boeing over the delayed aircraft, now that the two planes it already has are finally ready to return to the skies.
Speaking at a press briefing on Wednesday, ahead of full test flights of the planes to Jamaica on Thursday morning, Whorms explained that the third Max 8 that CAL had leased should have been delivered more than 18 months ago. But given the circumstances surrounding the grounding of the aircraft, he appeared confident that the company has some leverage to say when it takes delivery of this third plane.
In the meantime, the Max 8s will be fully tested over the next few days and be back in service before the end of this month. This will pave the way for CAL to immediately offload the two aging Boeing 737-300 aircraft that have become costly to maintain.
Having the two Max 8s in the air will give the airline greater flexibility to handle the current limited passenger service and expand cargo operations. The aircraft’s ability to fly much further than the old 737s will also give the Department of Tourism room to adapt to new gateways as tourism reemerges later this year.
At the centre of the return of the aircraft is safety. Officials from the airline, including the pilots, have all stressed that they believe they are safe, given the scrutiny this aircraft has been given since it was universally grounded in the wake of two fatal crashes.
Whorms stressed that Cayman Airways voluntarily grounded these planes immediately after it became apparent that the two crashes had very similar causes. This, he said, is because safety, not profit, is the priority for Cayman’s National Flag carrier. He added that other airlines didn’t stop flying right away because people did not know what had caused the fatal crashes, which the CEO was the reason why CAL opted to ground the two aircraft it had.
But since then, the plane has been adapted and changed and put through is safety paces. In the meantime, CAL pilots have also been keeping up their training on these planes.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
when is aa coming back?
they are 100 times better at everything than cal.
Yk this aged well when a AA 737 MAX 8 makes an emergency landing. Better you say?
sell cal asap.
conditions of sale:
cayman flag must remain on planes
all planes myust be made available for emergency airlift in times of hurricane.
I’m not ready either.
Wondering why in the midst of this Covid reset, (terrible phrasing… I get it but really it is a chance for us to reset our ideal new freedom), we could negotiate a partnership with delta or AA so that we are the ones flying in and out but with support from their staff. From what I understand planes have been sold off so why can’t we restructure a deal and make CAL profitable? I for one don’t think we should be letting the American way of doing business influence us. I think CAL is actually a wonderful airline if they could just sort out their delays and slow AF checking in.
CAL ‘not ready’ for delayed Max 8 planes
Do I detect sarcasm in the headline?
CAL’s planes are always delayed.
why not fly from tpa? instead of Mia
Like that would matter.
I would be very careful with that “impossible” word Fabian…!
Especially when used in reference to the airline business. This is obviously Mr. Whorm’s first rodeo!
Just fix it like usual. Throw more money at it and milk it while it still lives. Future Caymanians will pay for it all.
you have been saying that since 1965..try so go sit down..you will be the first one on it if you hear hurricane coming..
Moses disinformation bots already out again in full force. How’s the weather in Romania?
Exactly what has the pilots being doing for the past 10 mths.
Have they helped out Travel Cayman have them manned quarantine facilities. Pilots what have you been doing.
What have you been doing?
Working.
6.47pm Well they have been collecting full pay like all their fellow employees.
They betta count they blessings😶
6.47pm They have been busy collecting their full salaries like their fellow employees ever since Covid shut down ORIA.
Yes we did work with Travel Cayman! Thanks for asking 😘
Dodgy real estate development downtown?
Plane ya wan, plane ya get! Tek dat! PAY UP!
El oh el
“he appeared confident that the company has some leverage to say when it takes delivery of this third plane.” In other words we will just plead ignorant to the signed contract like usual.
Why was that contract drafted so poorly in the beginning that CAL couldn’t get out of it… Look at the “deal” lawyers for CAL on that one… Comments were probably very light 🚦
LOL. So we have no contractual right to defer taking delivery but he is confident we can use commercial leverage? What, the same commercial leverage that meant you could defer making lease payments on the delivered aircraft – NOT. How on earth do you think you can dodge have to start paying for the next one when you couldn’t stop paying for the last 2?
Mr Whorms makes the somewhat obvious comment that “profit is not the priority for CAL”, we have all been painfully aware of that since the airline got started. No doubt they will take advantage of the extended range and simaltaneously take the opprtunity to incur more losses by flying the jets non stop from Miami to the Brac.
Thats a fact
So should he have said that profit not safety was the priority of CAL.
Sometimes, I read these these comments and the idiocracy never ceases to amaze me.
Do you think the President of American, United or Delta would make a statement that profit not safety is the priority for their airlines.
Profit is good but without safety the public loses confidence
Well its a known fact that kx is a drain on the economy and will never be profitable due to mismanagement and the lack of vision. Hopefully one day it will be a self-sustaining and profitable airline but one can only dream.
I suppose you meant idiocy 10:23
10.23am Who are you calling people idiots, American, united and Delta indeed all proritised safety but prior to Covid all were profitable as they operate in the real world. In Cayman there is a bottomless pit full of taxpayer’s dollars from which CAL help themselves every year without fail, profit is and never has been a target.
And never will either, can tell ma and pa dat.
CAPA letter was not signed by Pilots…it was signed by the founder of Reopen Cayman, a real estate developer that flew for Cayman Airways a generation ago.
Kel Thompson is a CURRENT First Officer with Cayman Airways, and the Chairman of the Safety Committee for CAPA.
His position within Cayman Airways and CAPA affords him the right to sign the mentioned letter. The letter was cosigned by CAPAs President, Captain Gary Hydes.
Did you know that some letters are factual and some are not? Who ya gonna believe?
Does he pay the same respect to flying regulations as he does to planning regulations!
Good God Kel’s the Chairman of the Safety Committee? Wasn’t he the one who couldn’t find the airport in one of the other Caribbean islsnds?
The idea of flying in a Max 8 would be bad enough without the added dimension of it being piloted by a XXXX developer. If the founder of Reopen Cayman doesn’t understand that he should recuse himself from penning a testimonial that serves his narrative, then there is no hope for honesty in Cayman.
Nothing you said was wrong, but it is important to point out that he’s once again, currently a pilot for CAL. Let’s not cherry pick which information we provide because it bolsters our narrative. Conveniently left out information can be almost as, if not more damaging than disinformation.
Have a good weekend!
You don’t even recognize the irony of your speaking about transparency and cherry-picking: nowhere in Kel’s letter does it mention he is commercially conflicted from giving impartial safety certification while simultaneously serving as the Founder of Reopen Cayman, an owner of Hotel property, friend of DoT minister Moses Kirkconnell, and a DoE cheating, CPA-colluding developer of GT waterfront. Now you’re going to tell us he’s got some kind of “honest-guy” reputation to protect? Or worse, that this deceitful senior citizen developer could be piloting our 737 MAX 8 flight?!?
Blocking progression for younger pilots, only in cayman.
CNS..Shouldn’t this read, CAL not ready for “remaining” Max 8 planes..not sure that delayed is the right word..
But they remain ‘Delayed’. Due to the various circumstances that we all know and acknowledge has kept the [ remaining ] planes grounded.
Cayman has spent >$20mln on these grounded planes. Think about that. Who would do that? $250K/mo/aircraft = $9mln a year and that’s before we start calculating the CAL staffing subsidy and reimbursing CIAA their serially unpaid landing fees. The Cayman public needs to see the truth of the lease agreements signed by Fabian Whorms and Moses K.
As far as I understand not one airline has been paying for these aircraft due to the grounding of them through Boeing’s negligence. That is part of the reason that Boeing took such a financial hit themselves.
4.07pm Time to pay the piper – they are no longer grounded.
We have been paying the lease even when they were grounded.
You mean apart from CAL?
How does that amount compare to the amount given to NAU to help out those in severe financial trouble because of Covid? For all those flag waving, CAL ca can do no wrong supporters think on that – $20m could have paid for a lot of food assistance and job retraining.
NAU stays on NAU forever. No retraining. NAU is another drain on the government.
For one, I would not wish to ever fly in one of these planes. Is Boeing the ONLY manufacturer of aircraft?
Thankyou.
If you want to fly out and in of Cayman you have no choice. AA will use same type aircraft
6.04pm Not so they announced last year they will not fly the Max from Miami to Cayman, it’s not a short range aircraft.
You go ahead and believe they won’t be flying a nex-gen medium range narrow bodied ultra fuel efficient plane here. See how that works out for you.
But presumptuous to be saying tourism re-emerges later this year.
Who is?
As we are relying on they UK a great deal now shouldn’t CAL start s Cayman via Bermuda route that the 737 8 can easily do and stop our total reliance on BA
And his fo you get to the U.K. from Bermuda? Yep. BA but to Gatwick which is horrible for connections.
SMH
How many people do you think routinely fly between Bermuda and Cayman?
12.57pm One.
Don’t forget the crew!
Both of them.
I thought CAL was tops in costs. ? Well, maybe I’m mixed up. Maybe they are just tops in fares and baggage charges.
“Officials from the airline, including the pilots, have all stressed that they believe they are safe…”
Being honest I don’t blame people for being skeptical, the same people now trying to say the planes are safe are the professionals who thought they were safe in the first place taking the word of Boeing an entity that exists only to make a profit instead of doing rigorous testing and oversight they should have done before approving them for commercial use
It’s like
They’ve all been drinking the same Boeing/FAA KoolAid and their rhetoric is about as believable as our Super Hero chief medical officer’s.
Oh don’t start with Lee.
What a total fraud.