Amidst objections from the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Airlines for America (A4A) the US Department of Transportation (DOT) on Monday denied applications by Caribbean Airlines and Fly Jamaica to have direct flights from Georgetown to New York.
Both Fly Jamaica and CAL had presented letters with their applications saying that they had been granted flag carrier status by the Guyana Government.
According to the ruling, the DOT said that in considering foreign air carrier requests for extra-bilateral authority it weighs various criteria specific to the type of extra-bilateral request, as well as any other factors that are germane to a particular case.
It said that with respect specifically to requests for extra-bilateral seventh-freedom turnaround service, the department has historically viewed such requests as extraordinary and have granted such authority only when the circumstances presented on the record in individual cases show compelling public interest considerations.
It said against that background, it reviewed the applications of CAL and Fly Jamaica and determined that “we cannot make the necessary public interest finding.”
The ruling stated that in this case, the Open-Skies Agreements that are in place both with Jamaica and with Trinidad and Tobago provide rights for licensed carriers of both countries to conduct fifth-freedom services with full traffic rights on all segments. Such rights are currently being exercised by CAL to transport Georgetown-New York traffic on its existing two flights and Fly Jamaica has begun serving the Georgetown-New York market on a one-stop basis via Kingston, Jamaica.
“In light of these existing Georgetown-New York services and the lack of a showing by the applicants on the record that there is a truly demonstrable need for additional Georgetown-New York services, we are unable to find that the CAL and Fly Jamaica seventh freedom turnaround proposals satisfy our public interest test for the type of extraordinary authority at issue. We therefore, deny the applications of CAL and Fly Jamaica,” DOT said in its ruling.
Both CAL and Fly Jamaica would have been seeking direct flight permission to corner more of the market here. The denial to both would leave Guyanese without a direct flight option to New York. The last such option was provided by Delta Airlines which pulled out of Guyana in May this year without fully explaining why. It was felt in some quarters that Delta believed that it was being unfairly competed against.
The denial of the applications will also mean that Guyanese will have to pay relatively high fares between Guyana and New York. The government may also be further pressed to try to attract a branded American carrier here.
Seventh freedom rights are defined as the right or privilege, in respect of scheduled international air services, granted by one State to another State, of transporting traffic between the territory of the granting State and any third State with no requirement to include on such operation any point in the territory of the recipient State, i.e the service need not connect to or be an extension of any service to/from the home State of the carrier.
