For Immediate Release
INTERCARIBBEAN APOLOGIZES FOR FLIGHT DELAYS AND CANCELLATIONS
Crew Shortage Due to Training Delay Impacts Flights System-Wide
Providenciales, November 10, 2018 – Chairman of interCaribbean Airways Lyndon Gardiner has issued an apology to the traveling public via the airline’s social media for recent flight delays and cancellations experienced by its passengers across their network. Gardiner says that the root cause was an unforeseen delay of several weeks in the training schedule for newly hired flight crew after their service provider experienced a protracted delay in their flight simulator being operational.
“interCaribbean has enjoyed success and growth over the past five years by implementing our strategy to create a network across the region and the installation of a second hub in Tortola to facilitate connections to the Eastern Caribbean,” said Gardiner. “On the flip side of our success is the inevitable need to rapidly train and deploy additional flight crew during a period when there is an acknowledged global shortage of pilots. Nevertheless, we were able to hire the additional personnel and arrange the required training, including the flight simulator sessions with our usual service provider. Unfortunately, after the training began, their simulator equipment broke down for a protracted period and the delay severely impacted our ability to keep to our intended schedule. In retrospect, we probably should have planned for the worst and moved more quickly to reduce the flight schedule. This has certainly been an unhappy learning experience and I wish to personally apologize to the traveling public who were negatively impacted by the delays and cancellations.”
Reduced Flight Schedule to take effect November 11th
Chairman Gardiner, had been away on business when the situation developed, returned to establish a recovery plan. Rather than continuing adhoc flight cancellations, a decision was taken to reduce the flight schedule with effect from November 11th until December 15th in order to give the new flight crews (all hired from the Islands we serve) and currently in the onboarding process, sufficient time to complete the required training and release to line flying. The affected flights are shown on our website, www.intercaribbean.com, and will be updated as changes become necessary.
Affected passengers are being offered a choice of full ticket refund or rebooking on another flight. Passengers should call our Reservations and Customer Care Center for assistance by dialing the toll free number displayed for the Country in which they are calling from, as published on our website www.intercaribbean.com, under ‘Contact Us’.
About interCaribbean Airways
interCaribbean Airways, based in the Turks & Caicos Islands, celebrated its 26th anniversary in February this year. The company operates Twin Otter, EMB120 and recently received the first two EMB145 Jet aircraft. The company provides services connecting the Turks & Caicos, Antigua, Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Dominica, Haiti, Jamaica, The BVI, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia and St. Maarten; Domestic flights are flown also in Jamaica between Kingston and Montego Bay, as well as flights within the Turks & Caicos Islands.
For more information, please contact Media Relations: media@intercaribbean.com
