CAL adjusts loads to allow return to La Ceiba

| 03/11/2021 | 32 Comments
Cayman News Service
Cayman Airways at ORIA (from CAL social media)

(CNS): Cayman Airways Limited (CAL) has resumed flights from Grand Cayman and La Ceiba, Honduras, which were interrupted after the Goloson International Airport (LCE) was suddenly downgraded in relation to its safety operations preventing CAL’s Max 8 aircraft from landing there at full capacity. But CAL has now limited passenger loads to B737-300 aircraft levels on the new planes to enable them to return to Goloson with the weekly flight.

A release from the airline said that it had conducted an assessment of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) requirements for Aerodrome Rescue and Fire Fighting Service in collaboration with the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAACI).

“This assessment has led to several CAACI-approved operational adjustments by Cayman Airways which maintain the required levels of safety, and includes limiting passenger loads to traditional B737-300 aircraft levels when using the larger B737-8 aircraft.,” officials said. 

The service resumed last Thursday and currently operates weekly with nonstop flights.


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Category: Local News, Travel

Comments (32)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    Cayman is truly blessed to have so many aviation experts. Wayne I hope you’re paying attention.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Likely a temporary measure to keep the route until the airport regains its certification.

    • Anonymous says:

      It’s permanently downgraded, as per the official notam for the airport. So it’s highly unlikely CAL will ever fly into la ceiba with the full 737-8 load again. Roatan is a much better experience to fly into yet once again political geniuses refuse to utilize it instead of LCE. I’d imagine Hondurans would much prefer to get into RTB for the ferry to LCE rather than not get into Honduras at all, as no other carrier will fly a jet into LCE with the current firefighting capabilities.

  3. Anonymous says:

    But why?

    • Straight talk. says:

      First of all it provides the much needed link for people travelling to other Central American destinations like Nicaragua,Belize and Panama rather than through Miami.
      It has been for quite some time the most profitable route for the airline where tickets cost much more than thier other destinations.
      As far as the sex trade goes it is not Latinas that provide escort service to visiting business men on Seven Mile Beach.
      I will close by saying there has been no mass shootings or insurections in La Ceiba so far this year.

      • Anonymous says:

        The US Government does a far better job at granting visas than Cayman could ever conceive of doing.

        Let them all connect via Miami, including the Jamaicans. Stop flying directly to these places.

        Just imagine how the Philipinos, Nepalese and Indians manage to get to Cayman. That journey in itself is an effective way of sifting out many undesirables.

      • Anonymous says:

        And that’s a Max-8 plane full each week? Doubtful when CAL already has that option through Miami. There’s more to this than meets the eye methinks.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Well must make economic sense as any Cayman Airways decision is based on valid business fundamentals and definitely not the personal connections of a few locals with clout.

    • Anonymous says:

      CAL and economic sense? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

    • Anonymous says:

      FYI the Honduras route is one that CAL actually makes a $ from unlike most if not all the US routes…

      • Anonymous says:

        Please back this up with proof. We anxiously await your factual response.

      • Anonymous says:

        The only “profit” from the route is the massive amounts of cargo taken out of Honduras to Cayman (almost always includes lots of cheap clothing, foodstuffs, etc). Even then, that’s a couple thousand pounds of cargo. Compared to IBC bringing in 10-11000 lbs of cargo from Miami every flight. CAL is in shambles thanks to covid and mismanagement (the biggest culprit).

        • Anonymous says:

          Cargo from Kingston to LaCeiba and LaCeiba to Kingston. “Just in transit passing through” officer…

    • Anonymous says:

      We can only hope that is the case 9.28…. but forces behind the scenes pull the strings.

  5. Anonymous says:

    Why on Earth is this decrepit airport link so important to CAL?!? It’s so external to CAL’s own published mandates, that if it was any private sector airline, it would be a Suspicious Activity Report.

    • Anonymous says:

      Flying in people more lawless than Jamaicans, and they won’t even bother to speak English.

      • Anonymous says:

        Well so much for PC

        • Anonymous says:

          It’s PC or keeping quiet, that allows the slow destruction of the ordered society all these people escape to….then they start changing it , at an enormous cost to all of us.

    • Anonymous says:

      You obviously don’t have girlfriend there like everyone else.

    • Anonymous says:

      This route is based on the sex trade, drugs trade and people trafficking

      Family connections is merely a secondary consideration

      No voter or group of voters has the power to stop this👍

      • Anonymous says:

        We have more drugs and human trafficking from Jamaica on a daily basis via the canoe. Sex is also on the menu locally. And we already have a massive Jamaican population. We need more other nationalities OTHER THAN JAMAICANS NOW

        • Anonymous says:

          2:11 pm, you are 100 % right need other nationalities, too many Jamaicans here now, need to send some of them back home. I heard years ago one Policiation wanted to put a limit on how many of one nationality could come to Cayman to work, heard that it was like 6 % on the Cayman population. That’s needed now, too many of one nationality is not good for Cayman. But these Policiations of theses days don’t have the Spunk to do that.They only cares about their pockets and most of the voters are not the sharpest tools in the shed.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Really? Another storm in a tea cup?

  7. COP26-out CAL says:

    What a waste of fuel, and most hypocritical of CAL to persist in using the Max-8 below capacity.

    • Anonymous says:

      Especially when they have the Saab that can do the flight perfectly fine. Regional plane for regional flights.

      • Anonymous says:

        Agreed however the Saab is hardly suitable for even flights to CYB. It’s a commuter meant for light loads, La Ceiba pax + cargo = a very heavy, incapable Saab. If they were to properly invest in something like the Q400, which can handle multiple Caribbean routes rather than having “the first max in the Caribbean”, maybe we’d have a national carrier that would be worth flying on. Looks pretty bad paying a quarter million dollars a month for the three max aircrafts to go half loads or sit on the ground.

      • Anonymous says:

        Another aviation expert you are. Please explain how the SAAB can operate on this route effectively.

      • Anonymous says:

        Especially flights well-outside of the airline’s stated mandates. Last we checked, La Ceiba was not an island of the Cayman Islands, an economic center, or a tourist embarkation market.

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