Cayman Airways’ Barbados-Cayman route has averaged just 34 passengers a flight through January since that connection launched in October last year.
A total of 1,912 paying passengers made use of that route across 56 flights between its launch in October and the end of January.
Former Tourism Minister and Opposition MP Moses Kirkconnell says the data warrants a rethink from Cayman Airways on the viability of that flight.
The Compass has previously reported that the airline receives a minimum revenue guarantee from Barbados for the flight, regardless of how many passengers it carries.
“If you have time on a plane to fly it, you look for what will bring the most value to the Cayman Islands. Is there some place that you can fly that plane that will bring more economic value to the Cayman Islands than flying to Barbados?,” Kirkconnell, Opposition MP for Cayman Brac West and Little Cayman, asked.
However, Cayman Airways CEO and president Fabian Whorms countered this point as he reflected on the route six months into its operation.
“The operation has so far been viable for the airline and has helped with making the airline efficient from an operational perspective, as it keeps our crews and aircraft occupied on days of the week, when we have available operational capacity that would otherwise not be used,” Whorms told the Compass.
These operations, he said, “do not displace any of our other activities at this time”.
He also said the minimum revenue being received by Cayman Airways, “is contractually guaranteed by Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc.”.
“This revenue from BTMI ensures that Cayman Airways does not incur any losses on the service being provided in collaboration with BTMI,” he added.
Cayman Airways launched its twice-weekly route to and from Barbados last October and, at the time, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan assured there would be no loss to Cayman.
He said the Barbados government was guaranteeing minimum revenues to Cayman Airways for the Grand Cayman-Bridgetown route.
That agreement made by Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc., which represents the Barbados government in tourism matters, guaranteed during the one-year period, to give CAL “minimum revenues” for operating the scheduled service.
No figure has been released on what that minimum revenue actually is, however, and to date there has been no official word on whether any payments have been made to the Cayman Islands government from the Barbados administration.
Cayman Airways’ Barbados flight departs Grand Cayman on Tuesdays at 5:10pm and arrives in Barbados at 9:35pm. The plane and crew overnight for a return Wednesdays from Barbados at 11:45am, arriving in Grand Cayman at 2:25pm.
On Thursdays, the flight departs Grand Cayman at 4:30pm and arrives in Barbados at 8:55pm. It returns from Barbados at 9:20am, arriving in Grand Cayman at 12pm.
Look at balance sheets
Kirkconnell, who served two consecutive terms as tourism minister, said when assessing routes there has to be consideration of the value it brings not only to Cayman Airways’ balance sheets, but all three islands’ balance sheets as well.
Pointing to a recent auditor general’s report which made it clear that despite losses, Cayman Airways creates significant value for Cayman at an estimated more than $200 million annually, Kirkconnell queried where Barbados slots into that number.
“If the auditor general said [Cayman Airways provides] a $200 million value, does the Barbados flight contribute to that? Would the Barbados flight contribute to it?” he questioned.
Based on figures released through the parliamentary question, the forward bookings for the route from February to September 2024 stood at 909 passengers as at last week.
The auditor general, in her analysis of Cayman Airways, endorsed the process that the flag carrier and government underwent to select Los Angeles as a new route, but the Barbados route could not be analysed in the same way for her to make any similar determination.
This was because of the funding guarantee from the Barbados government that ensured the route will at least break even for Cayman Airways.
Even so, the report did highlight a need for closer ongoing monitoring of route effectiveness and better metrics to help determine if government’s funding is appropriate for routes it has deemed valuable for tourism reasons.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story carried in our print edition incorrectly quoted the figure as 14 passengers per flight.
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A better route would be Vancouver, Canada. If the plane has the range. Lot of possible tourists there.
Completely agree with you Norman!
Good morning. I travel to Cayman from Houston every year for Pirates Week, Been doing for almost fifteen years. Unfortunately most of the times I have to make stops either in Miami or Charlotte. Why isn’t there a direct flight from Houston? I know a lot of people that could use Cayman Airways services.
Cayman Airways used to travel non-stop to Houston (I believe several times per week) years ago. Why the route was not continued (even at a reduced number of flights per week) I’m not sure of. Dallas could have been added to the same flight also, similar to how British Airways connects Grand Cayman and Nassau. Why anyone would think this Barbados route would have any more passengers than reported here, is unbeknownst to most.
It is surprising that Cayman Airways did not chose San Juan, Puerto Rico as an even better connecting hub for the Eastern Caribbean, with Monday and Thursday flights. Business travellers to the BVI and the Eastern Caribbean would use the Monday flight, back on Thursday (Tortola is a very short hop from San Juan with multiple flights per day). Other Cayman residents looking to enjoy a long weekend in Puerto Rico, St Barts, St Martin or any other Island within a very short flight from San Juan, could fly out Thursdays back on Mondays – or make a whole week of it.
When I used to travel to the BVI quite frequently from Grand Cayman on business it was an entire day’s travel via Miami and St Thomas. If I could have flown directly to San Juan and then onto Tortola, that would have been around a 4-5 hour journey in total – so much better. There are many Cayman businesses with BVI offices who I think would welcome easier travel between the two Islands.
Maybe they should add a 3rd Panama flight
I think 99% of the Cayman population knew this route would be a disaster.
Only, for whatever reasons he will understand, the Minister for Tourism was in the 1% who seemed to think this was a wonderful idea. I think Mr. Whorms has been left holding the bag and our tourism minister will wash his hands of this matter.
Mr. Whorms’ s explanation is quite frankly quite absurd. This route always was indefensible. The fact that KX will not make a ‘loss’ from this route doesn’t bare scrutiny. Any accountant will tell you ‘loss’ can be defined in so many ways.
If, as Mr. Whorms notes, we have ‘spare capacity ‘ for both aircraft and staff, why not a route that could result in a profit and also bring more tourists to Cayman?
This whole debacle stinks – quite unbelievable for our National Airline.
After reading the article, my first thoughts were; I never knew there was a direct flight from Cayman to Barbados. How many people living in, coming to or passing through Barbados are aware of this connection? It seems to be always first choice to discontinue and stymie inter-regional travel, making travel long and impractical in the Carrlibben. Are tye stakeholders aware that people would like to travel within the Caribbean butcare deterred from the sheer inconvenience of it all?Couldn’t Cayman Airways get serious and market this service in Barbados? Why let it languish for a year and then mark it as “oh well we tried”.
Barbados as we all predicted except the Minister, has proved a folly. Do the numbers include the usual CAL “baggage” of “Freebie Travellers” carried on all CAL flights?.
Who goes into business with the goal of “let’s not lose any money?”
Does the statement “not losing money” on this flight include?
– depreciation of the aircraft
– cost of long-term aircraft maintenance by putting more hours and landings on the aircraft
– a % allocation of the total losses of the overall airline that operates this foolish route
– potential lost revenue/profit from other more profitable routes
I assume the calculation includes none of these and is instead a simple calc of fuel + staff. Bare bones and yes that is probably covered but of the least importance.
I believe opening new tourist markets in Houston, Calgary, Vancouver, Las Vegas or San Francisco would all be better than this. Even adding more New York and Miami flights would better serve the Cayman people.
We need to start running CAL like a business, not a toy.
One of the initial stated reasons for starting the Barbados route was so that additional passengers would be attracted to fly via GCM to LAX. I wonder if the official figures show how successful this has been!
The GCM-LAX route suffers from one enormous flaw: the return flight from LAX is timed to be early morning which makes it virtually impossible for anyone living outside a small radius of LAX from using the service without sacrificing 4/5 hours sleep prior to flying.
This shows the blinkered thinking of CI officials who are more interested in a convenient arrival time back in Cayman than in attracting a widespread area of folks around LAX, or even connecting passengers. Make the LAX departure time after, say, 11am and passenger numbers will increase enormously.