Even as the fleets of other airlines in the Caribbean are declining, (Air Jamaica has cut its fleet from 20 to 15 aircraft) Caribbean Star has announced that it will be acquiring three new Dash-8 aircraft at a cost of US$39 million and will expand its route network.

The announcement of the expansion of the Antigua-based airline, which is owned by Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, was made at a cocktail party at the Hilton Trinidad last week to celebrate the airline's fifth anniversary.

The aircraft will join the Caribbean Star fleet in May next year, according to Edward Gilkes, the airline's recently appointed director of government, civic, travel and tourism affairs for both Caribbean Star and Caribbean Sun.

He also announced that the airline would add new routes in the new year including Caracas, Cancún, Jamaica, Santo Domingo and the Cayman Islands.

At the function, the company announced that it had transported 1.85 million passengers in its five years of operation.

Gilkes told travel agents and company employees that the airline had transported 415,000 passengers for the year up to last week. These numbers were superior to the same period last year, he said.

In a statement, the airline's president William E "Skip" Barnette said management and staff are to be applauded for this remarkable accomplishment at a time when the worldwide airline industry is in upheaval.

"The airline industry currently is very challenging: it is highly competitive, has heavy operational costs and is subject to diverse external factors which can affect sustainability," said Barnette.

"For an airline like Caribbean Star to have achieved growth and stability in such an environment is more than noteworthy," he stated.

Last week, the Caribbean Business Report carried a story on how the Dominica Tourist Board had announced a new nonstop daily service from Caribbean Star's sister airline Caribbean Sun beginning in December 2005. Caribbean Sun has a code share agreement with US Airways.

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