By Jace Moseley
Caribbean Airlines Launches New Island Destination
As many areas continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous new routes and destinations have been added by airlines across the world. Caribbean Airlines was one of the most recent airlines to announce new service with the launch of a new twice-weekly flight on Sept. 19. The Trinidad-and-Tobago-based airline announced that they would launch flights between Bridgetown, Barbados and Marigot’s Douglas-Charles Airport in Dominica.
These new flights will mark the airline’s first route to Dominica, but will not be the only link between the two Caribbean Islands. Both Air Antilles and InterCaribbean Airways will offer competition on the route. Overall, the Dominican city will become the airline’s 23rd destination across the Caribbean, Canada, the United States and South America.
The flights will operate twice weekly on Saturday and Sunday but with slightly different schedules depending on the day. On Saturdays, the flight will leave Bridgetown at 5:30 p.m. and arrive one hour later into Marigot. Following a short time on the ground, the aircraft will depart back to Bridgetown at 6:25 p.m., again arriving one hour later. On Sundays, the aircraft will follow the same routing however will leave Barbados at 10:00 a.m. The aircraft will leave Dominica at 11:55 a.m. on Sundays, arriving back into Barbados just before 1 p.m.
Currently, the flights are scheduled to allow easy connections to the carrier’s network from Barbados. The flights are also timed to create smooth connections onto the airline’s interline partner, Virgin Atlantic, and its flights to London-Heathrow.
Caribbean Airlines will operate the flight with their 68-seat ATR 72-600 aircraft. The ATR 72 is laid out in an all-economy configuration and used on short hops to different destinations around the Caribbean.
In a press release, CEO Garvin Medera said, “Our Eastern Caribbean expansion continues with the addition of Dominica to our network. We have set up a temporary base in Barbados, providing much needed airlift to Dominica, St. Vincent, Grenada and St. Lucia, with more destinations to be added in the coming weeks.”
Bridgetown will now see Caribbean Airlines service to six destinations including flights to the airline’s main hubs in Kingston, Jamaica and Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. While many nations in the Caribbean are still closed to travel, the airline has continued to work closely with local governments to allow one-off flights between certain islands. On Sept. 11, the carrier will operate a special one-time flight between Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
While tickets are already available for purchase, the Dominica flights are still subject to approval by the government of Trinidad and Tobago, and schedules may change.
Being from Seattle, Jace was bitten by the aviation bug at a young age and never outgrew it. Although none of his family is in the industry, he has always wanted to work in aviation in some capacity. He currently in college studying air traffic management.