Commercial Aviation in Caribbean Still Has Its Hurdles

For a region highly dependent upon tourism as the Caribbean, air connectivity between islands still can be very difficult.

Speaking at the 5th annual Caribavia conference earlier this month, InterCaribbean Airways CEO Trevor Sadler described the challenges faced by commercial aviation in the Caribbean in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. (Photo: AIN/Curt Epstein)

By Curt Epstein • Business Aviation Services Editor

June 28, 2021

For a region highly dependent upon tourism as the Caribbean, air connectivity between islands can still be very difficult, according to Trevor Sadler, CEO of Turks & Caicos-based InterCaribbean Airways. Speaking earlier this month at the 5th annual Caribavia Conference, Sadler noted that a trip on a legacy airline from Turks & Caicos to St. Maarten, such as he took to reach the conference, involved flying from Providenciales to Miami, and then on to Charlotte, in order to reach to St. Maarten. While airlines such as Jet Blue, Frontier, and Air Belgium have begun expanding their service into the region, small regional carriers such as InterCaribbean and Winnair are working to bridge those gaps and eliminate the need for U.S. connections through interline agreements with major airlines. Sadler noted that when the airline began nearly three decades ago, it carried mainly Caribbean residents, but now given his company’s exposure worldwide, tourists from as far away as Australia can account for half the passengers on a given flight.

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