As Caribbean Airlines expands its presence within the Caribbean and returns to profitability, some of their previously mentioned plans appear to already be in the works.
In March 2019, the company’s CEO Garvin Madera spoke about adding more Caribbean destinations to its route map, with intentions of creating better connectivity within the English, Spanish, French, and Dutch territories.
To fulfill those needs, it appears that Caribbean is already in the works of acquiring more ATR 72-600 aircraft, with the first addition being spotted arriving at Iqaluit Airport (YFB) in the Canadian territory of Nunavut on a ferry flight. Registered as 9Y-TTI, flight BW7901 flew in on January 16, continuing on to Toronto-Pearson (YYZ) later that day.
Unlike the airline’s first 5 acquisitions, -TTI is not a new aircraft. The turboprop which is being leased from Nordic Aviation Capital is just shy of 4 years old and previously flew for TransAsia Airways. However, the airline ceased operations in November 2016 and the aircraft was stored since.
From the photos, the aircraft is sporting an all-white livery. There are no details yet as to if or when it will be painted in full colors.
While no official confirmation has been given yet, sources say that the airline is looking to expand operations out of its Piarco operations in Trinidad, with additional routes to Antigua, Dominica and Tortola.
Caribbean has recently started Boeing 737 service from Kingston, Jamaica to the Cayman Islands, as well as Trinidad to Curacao.
A previous version of the story stated the aircraft was almost 7 years old and flew for 3 airlines before being ferried to Trinidad. However this information cannot be verified and was removed from the post. We will update as soon as we get more statistics on the aircraft’s history.
[Featured Photo: Frank Reardon Photos/Twitter]
