InterCaribbean Airways

interCaribbean Airways

IATA ICAO Callsign JY IWY ISLANDWAYS
Founded	1992 (as InterIsland Airways, Ltd.)
Hubs	Providenciales International Airport
Focus cities	Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport
Fleet size	14
Destinations	16
Parent company	Interisland Aviation Services Group
Headquarters	Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands
Key people	Lyndon R. Gardiner, Chairman Trevor Sadler, CEO
Website	interCaribbean.com

interCaribbean Airways, Ltd.^[1] (formerly known as Air Turks & Caicos) is a passenger airline based in the Turks and Caicos Islands. The airline offers scheduled domestic and regional services from its hub at Providenciales, Turks & Caicos, to multiple destinations in Antigua, The Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Puerto Rico. interCaribbean Airways also operates domestic flights in Jamaica between Kingston and Montego Bay, the first non Jamaican airline in over 50 years of Jamaica independence to be given such route rights. The company provides charter flights as well.

History

The airline was established in 1991 as InterIsland Airways Charter Services. In 2003 the Turks and Caicos Government started a push toward regional and international development and it seemed the time had come for the Turks and Caicos to have its own airline. A scheduled license was applied for and granted, and thus began an ambitious expansion project that involved adding international destinations and acquiring larger and faster aircraft. The company re-branded to become Air Turks & Caicos to serve key international destinations, with daily scheduled flights to cities in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Bahamas and Puerto Rico.^[2]

The chairman of the airline, Mr. Lyndon R. Gardiner was born on North Caicos in 1967, as the 4th of six children. Lyndon Gardiner learned from his maternal grandfather, a fisherman by trade and a legislator for most of his life, that goal achievement requires unwavering determination and dedication. After spending the first ten years of his business career in finance, he decided to follow the example of his two older brothers and went to Ft. Lauderdale to attend flight school.^[2]

He purchased his first plane in 1991 and started providing an informal but popular on-demand air taxi service that he called InterIsland Airways. In those nearly unregulated days of flying in the Turks and Caicos, he was often called out in the middle of the night to fly Medevac flights after having put in a full day. He felt a strong obligation to assist, as a Medevac flight flown by his long-time friend, the late Howard Hamilton, saved his own life after a devastating motorcycle accident on Grand Turk that broke his legs.^[2]

InterCaribbean Airways Embraer 120 and Twin Otter

By 1999 Gardiner had acquired a small fleet and was running a full-fledged charter service. Realizing that his true potential lay in business, not flying, he left the piloting to others and concentrated on growing his fledgling airline. By 2004, having added several more companies to his portfolio, he had gained widespread recognition for his efforts and was named Businessman of the Year.^[2]

In 2013 after operating for 10 years as Air Turks & Caicos, the company re-branded from Air Turks & Caicos to interCaribbean Airways to embrace new opportunities across the Caribbean.

In 2008, Air Turks and Caicos bought its direct competitor SkyKing. The SkyKing brand was integrated within the Air Turks and Caicos operations on 22 October 2008.^[3] In November 2013 the Company announced a new brand name followed by a new expansion plan focused on providing greater connecting options in the area directly north of the Caribbean sea.

In 2018 it was announced that the airline is introducing new routes from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to Aruba and between Curaçao and Kingston, Jamaica. These new services add to the airline’s nonstop flights to Tortola, St. Maarten and Providenciales, Turks and Caicos, reported Caribbean Journal (CJ). The announcement came from interCaribbean’s Chairman and Founder Lyndon Gardiner, and the airline’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Director Trevor Sadler. “At interCaribbean Airways, we know that the Dominican Republic currently leads the region as an economic engine and as a strategic commercial and business point,^[4]” said Sadler in a recent presentation to stakeholders. “Our intention is to facilitate the opportunity through the introduction of these new routes.”^[4]

An interCaribbean Airways Embraer 120 at Providenciales International Airport, in the old livery

The new destinations of Aruba and Curaçao will also serve as new routes for the British Virgin Islands with connections to and from Tortola via Santo Domingo. Direct flights from Tortola, interCaribbean’s second hub, include services to San Juan, Puerto Rico, Antigua, St. Maarten, Santo Domingo, St. Lucia and Providenciales with connections to Kingston and Nassau.

The Turks and Caicos-based carrier, which connects 22 destinations and 14 countries in the Caribbean, will also be adding a larger aircraft to its fleet, increasing its passenger, and nonstop and direct flight capacity. “InterCaribbean has a long-standing history and relationship with the Dominican Republic and we consider it a privilege to be serving the Dominican community, not only as a way to enjoy tourism elsewhere in the Caribbean, but also by being able to connect all Dominicans who live throughout the Caribbean,” Sadler said.^[4]

Currently the airline operates six 30 passenger Embraer 120 aircraft with equipped with lavatories, a galley and flight attendant service, 2 x Beech 99 aircraft , 1 x 9 passenger Britten Norman Islander, along with a King Air 200 aircraft and Cessna 401. The Twin Otter aircraft joined the fleet again in December 2015.^[2]

Scheduled destinations

As of 2018, interCaribbean Airways operates scheduled flights to the following destinations within the Caribbean:

Fleet

As of March 2018, the interCaribbean Airways fleet includes the following aircraft:^[5]

The airline also wet leased an Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia from October 2014 to February 2016 to Cayman Airways for scheduled inter-island passenger flights in the Cayman Islands.^[6] Also, the airline will take delivery of two Embraer 145^[7][8] regional jets, which are expected to join the company in 2019.

References

External links

Media related to InterCaribbean Airways at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website