INTRA-REGIONAL travel in the Caribbean could be in for a boost with the coming on stream of a fully fledged scheduled passenger airline in less than two years.

Phoenix Airways, which currently operates charter services to destinations such as Aruba, Antigua, Anguilla, Barbados, Dominica, Dominican Republic, St Maarten, Tortola, St Kitts, St Croix, San Juan, Trinidad and St Thomas and international destinations such as Miami, New York, Toronto, London, Paris and beyond, have earmarked December 2016 as the official date of commencement in the Caribbean.

This announcement was made by the company’s chief executive officer and president Neville Gumbs who stated that it was the intention of Phoenix Airways to become a fully fledged scheduled passenger airline by December of 2016. The airline currently operates as a membership-based charter airline, in which members invest with the option of becoming shareholders by way of purchasing any of its timeshare packages “which are designed to suit everyone”.

This means that regional carriers such as Liat and Caribbean Airlines could soon be facing stiff competition once this venture comes to fruition. The move could be welcome news for some regional travellers who have been impacted by higher ticket prices since the demise of low-cost carriers such as Caribbean Star and more recently, Redjet.

Gumbs went on to state that the airline was formed by a group of Caribbean nationals who were very keen on redefining intra-regional travel through its present airline timeshare packages in the first instance.

The unofficial launch took place in September of 2012 in the Eastern Caribbean islands of St Kitts & Nevis. However, it was not until April 2013 that the company was finally incorporated in that twin-island state.

In outlining the make-up of the packages, Gumbs said that members could choose from a wide variety of packages such as Beginners, Lite, Elite, Plus, Silver, Gold and Platinum. These will allow passengers to travel multiple times within a contract year for one fixed rate to various destinations. He also made note of the added advantage of lounge access and priority boarding for persons within the Silver, Gold and Platinum packages.

“For now our business concept is one of charter services and therefore everything is by membership. It is a different type of service we are offering at this time to the regular scheduled passenger airlines. The bigger your fractions, the more hours you and your family can fly. This will result in families flying at heavily discounted rates, whether it is throughout the Caribbean or beyond. This will, however, depend on the level of your investment package,” Gumbs said.

“Flying by investments is a totally different business concept to travellers in the region! Yes, it’s different! Instead of waiting for passengers to come and book, they pay us in advance,” said Gumbs.