REDJET yesterday announced that is has commenced ticketing services for the Georgetown to Antigua route, following that to Port of Spain last Monday.
The announcement was made by the airline’s Communications Officer, Ms. Nyssa Pierre, during a telephone interview with the Guyana Chronicle.
In addition, she said the low cost air carrier opened its website, so that persons can now use it to book their flights.
Pierre emphasised that Guyanese have responded remarkably well to REDjet’s services since its introduction to the market in May and pointed out that this support has allowed for an accelerated expansion of services.
“The Guyana market is very fluent and now that the airline has three direct flights out of the destination, Barbados, Trinidad and now Antigua, it is testimony to two things, how well the market has responded and of how much the service was needed.
According to the airline’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Mr. Ian Burns, the introduction of Antigua to the ports of call is in keeping with the company’s promise to develop air services in Guyana.
He had made the disclosure at a recent media briefing, where he predicted that flights to Port of Spain were scheduled to begin on Monday, September 12 and tickets to Antigua route will be put on sale by September 19.
Alluding to the consumers’ response to REDjet’s promised low fares and reliable service, which has allowed for even greater expansion, the CEO stated: “The response that we have received has been overwhelming. We had estimated that we would have a load factor in July and August, on our aircraft of 55 percent, our actual load factor, in July was 78 and 85 percent, and you can see that there was a huge amount of business.”
Burns said the overwhelming support was a surprise, because it was expected that it would take time for consumers to buy into REDjet and to actually begin using the airline.
Delighted
“The response was instantaneous and we were delighted. We are appreciative of the consumers for travelling so much with REDjet and, going forward, we will continue to deliver the most reliable services at the lowest fares to consumers,” he assured.
As to the impact the regional low cost airline has had, REDjet’s CEO explained that, before the launch, statistics indicated that there was only four percent satisfaction with the travel industry within the region, which was a “shocking indictment” of what was happening.
He said: “98.5 percent of passengers say that REDjet is excellent value, before we came into the market, only 4 percent of people in the Caribbean thought airlines were of good value. We have been able to change people’s perception in that short period of time. Facts and figures don’t lie.”
Burns gave the assurance that the airline will continue to work towards keeping its promises, to reduce the cost of travel in the region by up to 60 percent, make it easier for people to fly and continue to grow markets.
REDjet was officially launched in Guyana in April and its inaugural commercial flight arrived at Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri, from Barbados, on May 10, with 149 passengers including top airline officials and representatives of the Barbadian Government.
It was set to fly to three destinations, Barbados, Trinidad and Jamaica. The last is yet to materialise but now Antigua has been added, making three direct routes out of Guyana, in addition to Trinidad and Barbados.
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