[www.inewsguyana.com] – The United States Department of Transportation has rejected the application of Fly Jamaica, which sought permission to have direct flights between Guyana and New York.
This means that passengers using this service will have to in transit in Jamaica before heading to New York.
In documents obtained by iNews, the US Transportation Department stated, “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 applicant on the record that there is a truly demonstrable need for additional Georgetown-New York services, we are unable to find that Fly Jamaica seventh freedom turnaround proposals satisfy our public interest test for the type of extraordinary authority at issue. We will, therefore, deny the applications of Fly Jamaica.”
Surprisingly, Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) also applied to the US for permission to conduct direct flights between Guyana and New York. They too were denied.
According to the US, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Airlines for America (A4A) each filed consolidated objections to the applications of Fly Jamaica and CAL and asserted that the requests of Fly Jamaica and CAL are extra bilateral, and that the Department should deny the applications.
The documents revealed that Fly Jamaica filed their application on July 16, 2013, while CAL filed theirs just two days after [July 18, 2013].
On Friday last, Fly Jamaica had its inaugural flight from Guyana to Jamaica then New York.
In its application to the US, Fly Jamaica argued that the denial of its application would result in the continuation of anti-competitive conditions whereby CAL is the only carrier providing nonstop service in the New York (JFK)-Georgetown market.
