Fourth Max 8 set to land in Cayman
(CNS): Cayman Airways Limited (CAL) has taken delivery of its fourth Boeing B737-8 aircraft from Air Lease Corporation (ALC) at the Boeing Delivery Center in Seattle, Washington. The new plane will fly over the two airports before landing, which will be about 5pm at the Cayman Brac’s Charles Kirkconnell International Airport and about 5:30pm at the Owen Roberts Airport.
This completes the five-year programme to modernise the fleet of the airline, which has been beset with difficulties, started with the grounding of this new aircraft in 2019 after two fatal plane crashes of this model.
CAL, like all other airlines that use Max 8 aircraft, then had to navigate the long road to rectify the problems that caused these two catastrophes. This was followed by the collapse of air travel in the face of the pandemic. Officials from the national airline, which is still flying a reduced schedule, said that the additional plane would help the airline cope with busy times.
The new plane is expected to touch down at Owen Roberts International airport at 5:33pm today but is not expected to begin service until next month.
While CAL is not expected to increase its routes until after the Cayman Islands moves to the final phase of its reopening plan and lifts the isolation requirements for travellers and guests, officials said the new plane will help it better manage the existing flight programme.
“Cayman Airways presently operates three B737-8 jet aircraft which were delivered to the airline brand new, and the delivery of this new fourth B737-8 will help to provide the redundancy needed to deal with the unanticipated circumstances that often arise on the busiest days for travel,” said Cayman Airways President and CEO, Fabian Whorms.
“We are looking forward to offering improved service by being able to spread our current flying over a larger number of aircraft, which will provide greater scheduling flexibility and an increased level of redundancy when operational challenges arise.”
When this model aircraft was first grounded, Cayman Airways had received two of the four new aircraft and the airline secured compensation for what became a two-year grounding of the two planes. Although the details of the deal have not been revealed, Whorms has persistently stated that the national flag carrier was able to secure a favourable agreement.
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Category: Business, Local News, Transport, Travel
Caynan are a rich country, rich indeed
Is it true cayman airways don’t even have wifi enabled on their new planes?
Will always fly aa…. Better planes, better rewards, more reliable….
Cal is the reason we have to pay $300-400 for a 1 HR flight to Miami…
Nothing!
I thought it weird. Not even a spot to charge a device.
I wonder if it was the same folks who approved the $400,000 cable television install at Clifton Hunter vetoed the line item for wifi on the aircraft.
All fancy airplanes, with no WiFi or onboard IFE capability.
Waiting for the shoe to drop on us when and how we pay the bill for all these EGOS.
FLOW or Digicel launching 5G anytime soon?
Don’t hold your breath, Starlink will be first if not already smuggled onto the island.
Does anyone know if we ever got relief or refund for years these lemons were grounded?
CNS: Yes. It’s in the article.
People dont read,they just jump to what they think is in the article.
Its a favourable deal – so favourable that CAL doesn’t want to tell the taxpayers that pay for CALs recurring losses each and every year cant know the details. No doubt the old “confidential settlement” excuse government uses when paying off something embarrassing, like demoted chief officer settlements or lost legal suits.
All the gear, no idea
And that’s another reason I don’t fly CAL
CAL BFF friends & family fly for free clubs bots are working overtime on those thumbs down
All the hooha about the 4th new Max8, but not a word about the cost, borne by the taxpayer via ever increasing annual subsidies. What about the old jets, have they been sold yet?, what about CAL’s financial statements which seem to have gone MIA over the last several years.The absolute gall of our Govt and national airline to expect unlimited bailouts without accounting for where all this money is going is unbelievable.But no, this is norm in the Cayman Islands despite a world class Civil Service, and a world class Government run by world class politicians.
Hardware cost is $490,000,000, but the ALC lease terms and costs – that we couldn’t be released from, even after two headline mass-fatality crashes and a two year FAA safety grounding – is a redacted mystery. It doesn’t point to a good deal, that’s for sure. Not when other minor airlines were able to secure interruption insurance to cover lease payments, or enjoy pass-though share of Boeing bailout funds, or surrender their leases without penalty. Why a final, signed and sealed, public SAGC contract involving substantial taxpayer money/loans, and requiring AG transparency, would still be redacted after consummation, is the biggest question mark of them all. The competitive bidding process (if there was one) was finalised and completed years ago upon the signing of that document by authorised parties. We can only infer that the deal is so bad that it would lead to adverse consequences for the “stable genius” parties that negotiated and signed the deal on our behalf. To put in context the acumen of the negotiating team, the 3x 737-300s we bought outright in 2014 for 8 mln, had been leased previously for 6 mln a year. Using those metrics, the Cayman Islands could be paying >$1mln a day for these 4 planes, but we don’t know. It’s a colossal amount to shovel out for vanity.
It’s almost a million a month for the four planes. There’s also a cost paid to ALC per passenger (something like $1.25/seat for the first year, and goes up to around $3/seat after the third year). All of that is redacted for some reason (because our competitors really care what a small 4-plane regional airline is paying, right?). One could only hope the documents are leaked to show how weak of a management team run the airline. It used to be great. What happened…
Let’s hope they add a western city to KX routes PLEASE
YES! Like Vancouver!
Is that within range? It would be great to open up to the Western US+Canada.
Money maker!
So just how much did it cost to fly the board members to SEATTLE and all the CAL staff just to bring this MAX8 home? Surely they had to pay them stipends etc.??
BTW KX – dis still the Max8 bout 737-8 kmt. what a calamity
Lol plus wasting jet fuel to fly over CYB. As if all of us haven’t already had ample time to see the aircraft when they were grounded for 2 years….
Good point. But what about all those Caymanians who swore they would never fly one of these Boing 737 Max planes? Staying put, or changing their tune?
Lol..those same people swearing they wouldn’t fly on it were the same ones were demanding B737-8 service to the Brac and taking trips to Miami to shop when no other airline was operating. Talk about speaking out of both sides of your mouth.
I bet a lot of them are civil servants flying to Miami on medical trips paid for by Cinico along with their hotel accomodation, and just perhaps, a wee bit of shopping?.
Perfect timing, NOT
Great news. Now we can offer 4 flights a day to Honduras……….
Too bad it won’t be able to fly back into the US later this year as now the 5G interferes with it’s electronics.
https://www.livemint.com/news/world/why-flights-are-being-cancelled-owing-to-5g-rollout-in-us-5-things-to-know-11642655537418.html
B.S.
737-8s will be cleared for U.S. airports, you do realize U.S. carriers using the same plane are flying?
Has nothing to do with CAL really as the current US destinations have all already received FAA compliance alternatives (for now). Biggest issue they have to worry about now is having 4 late flights instead of 3 however.
How uninformed you are. The MAX electronics suite does not operate on the same frequency as 5g band.
While there are precautions taken to minimise potential impacts from degraded aircraft systems, the airplane isn’t banned from operating in the US at all.
Boeing 777, 787 and 747-8 series have the potential to experience negative impacts from the 5g as their electronics suite RAD ALT operates on frequencies very close to the 5g.
Read a bit more before you post ridiculous statements.