Quick on the heels of rare profits not seen in almost a decade, regional carrier Caribbean Airlines Limited, CAL, is pushing ahead with big expansion plans that are meant to maintain its momentum, including a travel and tour subsidiary to be launched next year and refreshing its fleet of jets.

The new orders for 12 planes from Boeing will roll in over three years, from 2019 to 2022.

The government-owned and Trinidad-based carrier, which reported a modest third-quarter profit this year after nine years of bleeding red ink, has its eyes set on what CEO Garvin Medera describes as “underserved intra-regional routes,” including Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

CAL It is also eyeing routes into Africa and locations in South America, inclusive of Suriname and Venezuela which it now serves. And it is even planning a return to London, where CAL, like Air Jamaica, which it bought and merged with in 2011, lost huge amounts before pulling the plug on that long-haul flight in 2016.

In an interview with the Financial Gleaner this week at CAL’s Kingston offices, Medera said the planned expansion comes after the careful data-driven review of extensive historical performance and trends during eight months of non-stop strategic planning.

Medera did not address the issue of what the programme would cost, but said it would be financed from the airline’s internal resources.

Under Medera’s leadership, the airline – in which Jamaica has a 16 per cent stake and Trinidad & Tobago owns 84 per cent – reported TT$48 million in net profit over nine months ending September in a release of its unaudited financials.

Medera has headed CAL since October 2017, a job he took on notwithstanding the rapid turnover of bosses at the carrier, which in its 11-year history has had about five CEOs and three interim bosses who tried – and failed – to shake off years of operational inefficiency and financial losses.

The haemorrhage reportedly topped US$83 million in 2012 and fell to US$60 million in 2014 before slowing in more recent years.

Despite a TT$50 per passenger subsidy from the T&T government for the airbridge to and from Tobago, for the short hop, Caribbean Airlines still makes a loss of about TT$100 on each one-way ticket, of which it sells about a million a year.

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