Kansas City and Austin earmarked as possible Cayman Airways routes

Kansas City, Missouri, and Austin, Texas, have both been identified as potential future destinations for Cayman Airways flights.

The Department of Tourism suggested the new locations to the airline’s board for consideration after researching potential short haul routes earlier this year.

Department director Rosa Harris revealed the suggested expansion to the Finance Committee on Wednesday, 13 Dec., following a question from member Chris Saunders.

Harris said Austin is a particularly attractive destination, as it is a “very affluent market”, and the Cayman Islands Tourism Association supports the suggestions.

As well as the short-haul routes, the director said, over the past three months, the department has carried out an aviation assessment on behalf of the Ministry of Tourism.

It looked at longer-haul traffic in Europe and Latin America, as well as improving connectivity, she said.

The department assessed the type of aircraft based on the proposed extension of the runway at Owen Roberts International Airport that could potentially land in Cayman.

As a result, the focus remains mainly on Europe, Harris said, adding that the department is working with the private sector on building promotional activity.

Cuba

Paul Tibbetts, executive vice president of Cayman Airways, also gave an update on the Havana route, following a question from the committee member Roy McTaggart.

McTaggart asked how well it is running after the US clamp-down in July on offering ESTA visa waivers to people who had visited Cuba since January 2021.

“We know that there are people that are not wanting to travel to Cuba because they stand the risk of not getting their ESTA granted,” Tibbetts said.

He explained that the demographic of people travelling has shifted away from tourists and towards Cuban nationals, but “a significant number of people” are still travelling.

“Havana is a route that is very volatile,” Tibbetts said. “Sometimes it does extremely well and, other times, it struggles.”

He said now demand has started to resume on that route, the airline is looking at potentially adding a third flight, after cutting it from four to two this year.

“Today, as an example, it came out full from Havana and that is quite typical of what we’re seeing there now,” he said.

Los Angeles

Last November, Cayman Airways began flying non-stop from Owen Roberts International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport – a five-hour route.

Tibbetts told the Finance Committee that for the first year, the flight operated at about a 60% capacity, and the airline transported about 10,000 passengers.

He said that analysis found that many people were using Cayman Airways for just one leg of the flight.

As a result, the carrier determined that if it were to add another rotation, it may be able to pick up some of those passengers.

“So, that’s really what the second flight is there for – to see whether that is capable of picking up enough demand to be sustainable. If it isn’t, we’ll pull it out.

“Generally, it’s holding its own and doing quite well. We have some decent loads on that for the Christmas period and into January.”

He said it is just now “coming into its own” as people become aware of the second flight and book on it, but it is too early to tell whether that flight will be successful long term.

Barbados

Cayman Airways launched its twice-weekly route to and from Barbados last month.

The Barbados government is guaranteeing a minimum amount of revenue on the route so that none of the flights can make a loss.

“We have treated that generally as we would a charter,” Tibbetts said. “They’ve asked for the service, we’ve priced the service – this is what we need in order to cover our costs.”

He said the passenger numbers are “surprisingly starting to look quite strong” on some days, adding, “they weren’t, kind of, what we expected there”.

The executive vice president said there are some people using it as a connecting flight from places such as Cuba.

“But, ultimately, it’s a decision for them to make, in terms of whether it’s worth their while to continue the operation or not,” he said.

Panama

In June, Cayman Airways relaunched its direct flights to Panama City, with a view to expanding connections to South America.

Throughout July and August, there were two flights a week and that dropped to once a week in September and October.

Tibbetts said, up to October this year, the flights have carried about 6,000 passengers at a 64% capacity.

After variable costs, the flights added about $400,000 to fixed costs, he said.

“So, we would rate that as a success, certainly in line with some of our best performing flights.”

Editor’s note: This story was amended from the original on 17 Dec. to reflect that one of the routes being considered is Kansas City, Missouri, rather than the state of Kansas.