Regional air carrier Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) has announced plans to resume its non-stop flights between St Vincent and New York. The flights are scheduled to begin on October 20.

“The services operating as BW 552 and BW 553 will originate and end in Trinidad to give customers the option of an additional connecting service to/from New York and Trinidad each Wednesday,” the company said in a release on Thursday, September 2.

The flights schedule is designed to facilitate early morning departures out of Trinidad, St Vincent and New York.

The addition of the St Vincent/ New York service will complement the airline’s current schedule, offering Caribbean Airlines customers the most connections between North America and the Caribbean as the airline continues the phased roll-out of its commercial operations.

The airline company, which continues to reel from losses since the novel coronavirus pandemic, has had to make proactive decisions including staff cuts, reduced trips and engage new cargo charters as it moves to manage the effects of the pandemic on its operations following a dramatic decrease in passenger traffic and a collapse in revenues.

In its last financial report for the six-month period ended June, operating losses for the company were TT$326.6 million (US$48 million), a performance the airline said was consistent with the same period for 2020 when it reported an operating loss of TT$331 million (US48.7 million). Total revenues generated for the six-month period was TT$264.9 million (US$39 million), a 54 per cent decline over the prior year due to an almost 45 per cent drop in passenger numbers as a result of the ongoing pandemic.