Caribbean Airlines Trims Puerto Rico And BVI Routes Following Poor Performance

Caribbean Airlines continues cost-cutting measures, announcing the discontinuation of flights to Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands.

On Tuesday, the Trinidad and Tobago carrier announced that flights to both Puerto Rico (SJU) and Tortola (EIS), British Virgin Islands, will be discontinued as of January 10, 2026 as part of their “Network Optimization Programme”.

“As part of the airline’s broader operational restructuring strategy, which includes on-going assessments of route performance and prevailing economic conditions on these routes, the airline has taken the commercial decision to discontinue services on its Tortola and Puerto Rico routes.”

In the release, they listed the following routes carded for removal.

Flight Number	Route
BW 292	Trinidad (POS) – Barbados (BGI) – Tortola (EIS) – Puerto Rico (SJU)
BW 293	Puerto Rico (SJU) – Tortola (EIS) – Barbados (BGI) – Trinidad (POS)
BW 296	Trinidad (POS) – Dominica (DOM) – Puerto Rico (SJU)
BW 297	Puerto Rico (SJU) – Dominica (DOM) – Trinidad (POS)

I did not see BW290 and BW291 listed (non-stop between Trinidad and Puerto Rico), but these flights no longer appear to be bookable either.

In situations like this, the airline will refund customers the full amount paid via their respective booking channels. Those booking through 3rd party travel agencies should will also be contacted regarding their refunds.

To reduce spending, Caribbean Airlines will also close their Barbados crew base, repositioning cabin members to the main hub in Trinidad. Routes out of Barbados are not expected to be affected, but will have their schedules adjusted to accommodate the first leg between Trinidad and Barbados.

From this map, it’s clear Caribbean has a substantial footprint between Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean and Guyana, but it looks like the crew will have to work a bit harder now in order for the airline to cut down on the expenditure required to house crew members in Barbados. Given that the majority of pilots and cabin crew are from Trinidad, I can see this making sense.

This latest reduction follows September’s announcement where they also canceled flights between Jamaica’s both airports and Ft. Lauderdale. The state-owned airline has come under intense scrutiny, receiving harsh criticism from the country’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, for failing to submit audited financials for the past nine years.

She claimed the airline was not profitable, and gave the then management team two years to bring the carrier back to a profitable position. Professional services firm KPMG was also tasked with conducting independent audits for the outstanding years.

So far, they have presented their 2016 findings, reporting a TT $695.4 million (~ US $102.7 million) loss, further adding to the cumulative deficit of TT $2.175 billion (~ US $ 321.5 million). The 2016 audit does not show the true position as the airline was unable to provide verifiable documentation to account for millions in inventory and vacation leave.

Over the last few months, Caribbean Airlines has seen multiple leadership changes at both the board and executive levels, and has since launched the Network Optimization Programme as part of a major strategy to significantly reduce spending and focus on more profitable routes.

When Caribbean revealed expansion plans back in 2023, they also leased four additional ATR 72-600s to support these plans. I wouldn’t be surprised to if some of these ATRs are returned to their respective lessors with the reduction in island connectivity.

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