CAL breaks records as tourism numbers keep climbing
(CNS): Cayman Airways Limited exceeded pre-pandemic numbers for both total passenger count and passenger revenue in October, setting new records for the national airline, a release from CAL stated. And according to Department of Tourism statistics, between 1 January and 30 September, a total of 180,624 visitors arrived in the Cayman Islands. With CAL alone bringing in 31,000 in October, it is now clear that the Ministry of Tourism’s original target of 200,000 visitors for 2022 will be more than surpassed.
“Cayman Airways transported over 31,000 passengers in October – breaking above 30,000 for that month for the first time in our airline’s history,” said Paul Tibbetts, Executive Vice President of Finance and Commercial Affairs. “Similarly, the passenger revenue numbers for October 2022 set a new record for CAL, exceeding the pre-pandemic numbers of October 2019 by 37%.”
Despite a slow start to the year, the airline saw growth in many markets following the complete reopening of Cayman’s borders in August 2022, Tibbetts noted. “Improvements to our schedule made earlier this year also resulted in robust on-time performance, and while high fuel and operating costs continue to weigh on the airline, the strong revenue performance is encouraging,” he said.
A sign that this high season is likely to be a record breaker, indicating the full recovery of Cayman’s tourism, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said it was “an amazing accomplishment” by the airline.
“Cayman Airways is a valued tourism partner and plays an integral role in growing and sustaining our tourism industry by connecting our islands to strategic international gateways,” he said. “We continue to see the value the airline brings by making it easy and convenient for visitors to enjoy our destination. I look forward to the Ministry of Tourism and Cayman Airways working more closely in the year ahead to continue expanding the tourism opportunities for our country.”
The ministry had originally targeted 200,000 passengers in total for 2022, amounting to 50% of last year’s numbers. But given that borders were only fully opened in August, it is now likely the minister’s revised speculative target of 250,000 arrivals will be surpassed after a very busy November for visitors and an anticipated busy December.
While the PACT Government had promised a review of cruise numbers in order to focus on quality over quantity, that appeared to go out the window this week when numbers of actual cruise arrivals also reached levels not seen since before the pandemic.
According to the Port Authority of the Cayman Islands (PACI), on Wednesday, five ships brought over 12,500 passengers, with an expected total for this week alone now of around 32,000 cruise visitors. Cruise numbers are expected to peak this month, with the potential for over 20,000 passengers arriving on 21 December.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Business, Local News, Tourism, Travel
United only has one flight on Sat and Sun from HOU to GCM
American has yet to reinstate the direct flight from DFW to GCM
AA only has two flights per day from MIA to GCM
So those two major airlines have yet to return to their pre-pandemic flight schedule thus it stands to reason CAL is picking up some of that air traffic.
11:15 commented on rental cars – Good Lord I went to book with Avis (always use them) for a three-week trip in late January through early February; the quoted rate was over 6k! And I was not booking a big ‘ole SUV with was for a standard-size car. Needless to say I won’t be renting from Avis on that trip.
Thank you 4:27, – that’s my argument exactly, -‘yes but they’re all coming here !’🙄
party pooper below
AND….the armed burglary headlines keep growing, too. Won’t matter what airline is flying if the crime continues to increase.
and, – I think those that do make it here will possibly reconsider coming back once they get over the shock of discovering recent food prices ! I’ve heard t first hand
AND…..when there is a cancellation on the US major airlines like has happened to me 2x in the past two trips, I have been sent on a Cayman Air flight from Miami. I did not book that, but ended up flying with them.
The prices are over the top and can no longer be justified (even though one can afford them) to stay/travel to GC. You just feel like you are being ripped off with hiked up hotel, car rental, and airfare.
Staff morale is at an all-time LOW, and if you know the view of the company by its employees you know that’s way below ground at this moment.
CAL does not truly care about its employees, its approach is very “take it or leave it”. When employees try to suggest ways in which to make the company better for its employees or even ways to save money in operations, they are shut down.
Only God knows why the Admin, reservation and counter staff remain. Obviously, the pilots and maintenance staff have no other choice…
@11:15am..Are you serious, Have you ever owned a business? There is no state or privately owned airline in the world or any competitive company that would release their financials to the public. Do you even realize how that information could bring the airline to ruin if it’s competitors could have that..
It still amazes me how some people who have never run a business could spew out so much foolishness. This would be like Hurleys giving all of their financials to Fosters and expecting to survive..
What about every airline that is listed on the NASDAQ/LSE/NYSE ect that releases their financials every quarter?
hmmm I guess you’re unaware that almost all the major airlines are publicly traded and have to make all of this information available publicly on a regular basis.
They also release qualitative information on their long and short term strategies and market outlook etc on a regular basis are part of their duty to keep shareholders informed of the situation they’re in.
Sooooo, CAL being effectively owned by the public should have no reason just like any other government body or authority to release their financials. I should rephrase that to say “no GOOD reason…”
Just remember the Trumanomics mantra: “Cayman Airways makes a profit after subsidy”. Of course, the subsidy is huge and tax payer derived.
9.16am Did you unintentionally omit the word “not” after “authority”.
Yes I have
I think you are referring to privately held companies, in which you are obviously correct…..sorry I should have been more specific assuming the obvious.
Cayman Airways is not a private company in any way shape or form.
It is a government subsidized entity, an important one no doubt, but subsidized by the government and (no foolishness here) the taxpayer.
What they deserve to know is how much do they have to pay each year in order to subsidize the airline and those who run it. 737Max leases would be interesting, were we in a position to have the newest airplanes out there? or is there more to that story? let alone the increase in fuel costs, equally interesting would be if staff fluctuated during covid, which I doubt.
I think you get the picture, or you should.
7:57, I guess you never looked at Air Canada and Westjet’s financials in Canada.
They are readily available. Check them out.
The strong revenue performance is encouraging.
What did government increase its subsidy ?
I don’t want to be a party pooper but what other options are available for people to travel ? From how I understand it, CAL had the market pretty much to itself from Jan until at least April, – please correct me if I’m wrong
Correcting you..You are wrong..Don’t be a party pooper!
Air Canada (Toronto)
American Airlines (Boston / Miami / Charlotte / Chicago/O’Hare / Dallas/Ft.Worth / Detroit / Miami / Philadelphia )
British Airways (London / Nassau)
Cayman Airways Denver / Havana / La Ceiba / Kingston/ Miami / New York / Tampa)
Delta Airlines (Atlanta / Detroit / Minneapolis)
JetBlue Airways (New York / Boston / Ft. Lauderdale)
Southwest (Fort Lauderdale / Houston / Baltimore)
United Airlines (Houston / Newark / Washington /Chicago)
WestJet (Toronto)
Yes I get that 7:40 and thank you for the post. What I’m really getting at is considering the differing airlift/capacity options at the beginning of the year shouldn’t CAL be leaps and bounds ahead of previous stats considering they were almost doing the same as what everyone else was combined ? The follow up now is despite all of those options you listed what is their schedule for convenience at this time ?
If you look at the schedule at the bottom of this link, yes I’ll agree there are several airlines, but the schedule seems to reveal CAL easily doing the majority of the legwork. I don’t want to poop at the party but this strikes me more of an article about ‘I’m the best left handed batter on the baseball team when all the others are right. If I do have it all wrong, hats off (the biggest ones) to CAL and I’ll in the future have diapers with me at all times.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/02/high-tourism-hopes-for-return-of-cals-denver-flight/
All those airlines flying in, but the route times are horrible and there are many delays and cancellations on those flights. Every trip ( and there has been 4 of them so far) I have had to take one airline down and one airline back and each time, major delays and cancellations. Can fly anywhere else since covid without the major hassles booking to a destination. GC is the hardest place since covid to book a flight to.
I’m not sure what rock you have been hiding under, but other airlines that come in here are JetBlue, Southwest, American, United, Delta, British Airways, WestJet, Air Canada, just to name a few.
As for me, Cayman Airways would be my first choice whenever possible.
This is all because people were locked away for 2 years and couldn’t travel and we were one of the last destinations to remove travel restrictions so of course especially at this time of the year we’re going to have more visitors and it’s going to look much better because we didn’t have such high numbers for the past 2 years and which was just into the new term of the new government change. When you look at it with these factors it’s not really that big of a deal. You just hadn’t seen this much Taurus in 2 years.
how about getting rid of those people who”s fighting against our bread the cruise ships.
Is there a way to get numbers on people here on a vacation rather than leaving the island for a business/pleasure trip etc
Yes, because our crew has left for holiday about 4 times more than we have ever done before due to the lockdowns, so a lot of the numbers are probably just residents going off island.
People were locked up. It’s not so much tourists, but families seeing each other after 2 years of Covid lockdown. Like others said CAL was the only airline flying in/ out for months. There might be a surge over the holidays, but after that I would expect a lull especially with the prices of the hotels.
5.04pm We also need to know how many of the 31,000 are actually Economic regugees rather than Tourists.
Let’s give our government and specifically the Hon Kenneth Bryan our congratulations and appreciation for the hard work in facilitating such a quick recovery. It’s always apparently easier to criticise versus compliment.
so can they now lower their prices back to pre pandemic levels?
Their prices are actually lower now than before; you can book a round-trip to MIA for CI$250 adult fare when you book at the right time.
Prices are lower now than before the Pandemic..do a little research..
Not finding that at all. I search for flights, hotel and car rental all the time. They went up when all the other islands had hurricane damage x2. Now they are up x4. Maybe not CAL as I can not fly them (their connection does not work), but all other airlines, hotels and car rentals are definitely UP!
Ok. Since we are doing so well, can we remove the baggage fees? That was added because of Covid right???
Baggage fees policy was added from 2018… for goodness sakes people
It is miraculous how quickly Cayman’s stay over tourists have come back and I am so grateful to see this!
I do this this is a great time to reassess the need for limits on cruise ships.
There will no doubt be increased demand for any tourism/ tourism support related products/services so it is a perfect opportunity for those dependent on cruise ships to diversify and take advantage of these new opportunities!
Get rid of cruise tourism. It ruins our island in soooo many different ways.
Wasn’t tourism up just 1% a month or so ago? Now, it is exceeding pre covid levels? Hmmm
The need for improved professional bus service grows more crucial EVERY day.
Meanwhile we are still awaiting CAL’s financial statements- how many years is it since we last saw them?.
Great news, now lets reduce the cruise ship numbers and we should have a decent product 😉
Great news, now lets reduce the cruise ship numbers;)
Thats great news!!
Now if they could prepare and make public audited financial reports for the last decade that would be great!
🙂
Don’t make me laugh. Not in our lifetimes
You can’t find any rental cars or hotel rooms right now. Good news for tourism – just keep the tacky vendors off of our pristine 7MB.
Why can’t we just straight up make it illegal to conduct trade and business on public beaches? If it’s your private land eg coral beach, knock yourself out.