Cayman Airways is immediately cancelling a number of flights between Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac as the Brac airport will now close during the evenings at weekends.
Starting this weekend, certain jet flights between the two islands will be discontinued on Saturday and Sunday evenings, the airline announced Friday.
Cayman Airways said it had collaborated with the Cayman Islands Airports Authority last year to provide these flights, after the authority extended the usual operational hours of 7am to 7pm at the Charles Kirkconnell International Airport in Cayman Brac.
It said the airports authority, however, had informed the airline last week that it would be resuming “operational-hour-restrictions at the Brac airport on 1 June, due to air traffic controller limitations”.
The Compass reached out to the Cayman Islands Airports Authority for comment.
In response, it stated, “The normal, published operating hours of the Charles Kirkconnell International Airport is 7:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., for which the airport is adequately resourced, and this has not changed.
“The Cayman Islands Airports Authority is committed to maintaining its published operating hours. The Authority has advised Cayman Airways that it will continue to accommodate their out-of-hours flight schedule in the short term while it develops a longer term solution.”
Asked about Cayman Airways’ comments about air traffic controller limitations, the authority admitted it does have “some limitations” but that it is fully resourced during its published operating hours of 7am to 7pm.
“We are working on solutions to immediately address the out-of-hours limitations,” it said.
Cayman Airways says the change in operating hours at the airport means that the additional jet flights that had connected Denver to Cayman Brac on Saturdays, and Miami and Tampa to Cayman Brac on Sundays, along with return flights to Grand Cayman, “can no longer be accommodated”.
It added, “With the original flight times having been developed based on actual aircraft availability and to facilitate the international connections, revised flight schedules are not available in the short term.”
As of 1 June, the following flights are being cancelled:
Saturdays
KX409 GCM-CYB: 8:10pm-8:50pm
Sundays
KX402 CYB-GCM: 9:00am-9:40am (return flight for the Saturday evening cancellation)
KX407 GCM-CYB: 7:40pm-8:20pm
KX408 CYB-GCM: 9:00pm-9:40pm
The airline advised that passengers holding bookings on those flights will be contacted by Cayman Airways directly and rebooked on alternate flights.
“Cayman Airways extends sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused by these unforeseen restrictions, which have been imposed at short notice and are currently beyond our control. We greatly appreciate their understanding and patience during this time,” the airline stated.
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Jet service from Grand Cayman to the Brac cannot be financially viable on such a short route. This may be the real reason these flights have been terminated. I know of no airline in the U.S. that uses jets to fly a 98 mile trip. How many Denver passengers connected with the Brac service?