BWIA, Aeromar begin flights to Havana.Two Caribbean airlines Caribbean Airlines is the national airline of Trinidad and Tobago. It operates international services in the Caribbean and to USA and Canada. Its main base is Piarco International Airport, Trinidad[1]. , Trinidad's BWIA BWIA British West Indies Airways BWIA Broadband Wireless Internet Access and the Dominican Republic's Aeromar, have begun flying to Havana as part of their separate regional expansion strategies. BWIA (formerly British West Indies British West Indies: see West Indies; West Indies Federation. Airways), inaugurated its Havana service in June, carrying 72 Trinidadian business executives on a trade mission to Cuba (see related story, page 11). Since then, the airline has been flying Wednesdays and Saturdays from Port of Spain Port of Spain, city (1990 pop. 50,878), capital of Trinidad and Tobago, on the Gulf of Paria. It is the industrial and commercial center of the country. From 1958 to 1962, Port of Spain was the capital of the dissolved Federation of the West Indies; in 2005 it became to Havana, using B737-800 aircraft for the 3-hour trip. Return flights are Thursdays and Sundays; round-trip tickets cost $400 plus taxes. On its website, BWIA also offers a $685 package from Port of Spain (and $799 from Georgetown, Guyana) which includes round-trip airfare to Havana, airport transfers, four nights of hotel accommodation, daily breakfast and all taxes. A BWIA official who asked not to be named said the airline's decision to begin service to Cuba is rooted in politics, not business. The airline--which is 33.5% owned by the Trinidadian government--is in such serious financial difficulties that two of its planes were recently seized in Miami for non-payment of $5.5 million to International Lease Finance. The jets were returned only after government officials in Port of Spain promised to pay off the debt on behalf of BWIA, which has lost $30 million since the beginning of this year. Meanwhile, Santo Domingo-based Aeromar Linas Aereas Dominicanas has announced that during the summer, it'll fly to Havana twice a week (Mondays and Fridays), but the frequency will rise to three flights a week in winter. Aeromar provides services to business executives, students, athletes and participants in various events. On its route to Cuba, the Dominican airline--represented in Havana by Cubanacan Express--uses 118-seat Boeing 737-200 planes. The small airline already flies from both Santo Domingo and Santiago de los Caballeros Santiago de los Caballeros (säntyä`gō dā lōs käbäyā`rōs), city (1993 pop. 364,859), N Dominican Republic, on the Yaque del Norte River. to New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , and from Santo Domingo to Miami, Aruba, Caracas and Curacao. Details: BWIA Corporate Communications, Port of Spain, Trinidad. Tel: (868) 627-2942. URL URL in full Uniform Resource Locator Address of a resource on the Internet. The resource can be any type of file stored on a server, such as a Web page, a text file, a graphics file, or an application program. : www.bwee.com/about/trasol_cuba.htm. Aeromar, Avenida Winston Churchill 71, Esq. Desiderio Arias, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Tel: (809) 533-4447. Fax: (809) 533-4550. URL: www.flyaeromar.com. |
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