(CMR) Chairman of the Cayman Airways Board, Dr. John-Paul Clarke, said the airline had a record increase in passenger revenue for the first six months of 2023, earning US$34 million, a 22 percent increase over the corresponding period of 2019.
Clarke, who was speaking at a press conference to announce Cayman Airways' new route to Barbados, said the board had been working strategically to increase revenue.
“We in the Cayman Islands are fortunate to have a national airline that can be strategically used to drive tourism. Although we receive Government support to meet the strategic objectives– and trust me, this support is vital to us at Cayman Airways— my fellow board members and I believe that our mandate is to generate additional revenue and thereby achieve profitability,” Clarke said.
He said calculated and deliberate decisions made by the board regarding the airline's network and schedule are already proving to be successful, with some of the best results in the airline's history.
“For the first six months of 2023, we have passenger revenue of US$34 million, a 22 percent increase over 2019 and a new company record. We transported over 200,000 passengers, and we had an average load factor of 57.3 percent which ties the previous record (operating aircraft with 24 percent fewer seats),” he stated.
Clarke also explained that the average load factor for Los Angeles is almost 61 percent, with almost 5000 passengers already transported to the destination.
“We are generally performing better than we anticipated when we actually launched the route,” the chairman said, adding that the Panama route's average load factor is around 62.3 percent.
He said the outlook for the rest of the year is very positive, with 65,000 passengers already holding bookings for the next several months, 2,600 plus passengers for LA, and over 2,700 for Panama.
Clarke said the board is constantly reviewing destination opportunities to expand revenue, adding that they are now looking to add two more US destinations.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid