The Guyanese government is willing to consider providing assistance to financially struggling and currently dormant Fly Jamaica Airways (Kingston Norman Manley), The Guyana Chronicle has reported.
"The government would not be averse to helping Fly Jamaica if it is in a position to do so. I don’t know what, if any, help Fly Jamaica [may] request and whether the government would be in a position to respond," Finance Minister Winston Jordan said.
The Guyanese-owned airline has been struggling since its only B757-200 N524AT (msn 30233) overshot the runway in Georgetown Cheddi Jagan on November 9, 2018, and was damaged beyond repair. The carrier's second aircraft, B767-300 N767WA (msn 24876) has been out of revenue service since October 7, 2018. On October 12, 2018, the aircraft was repositioned to México City International for maintenance and remains grounded there.
RJR News reported in late December that the dormant carrier was struggling financially and failed to pay salaries for the last two months of 2018 on time.
The carrier has been hit by the costs of compensation after the crash landing of its B757 and lost revenues due to inactivity. In mid-January, Fly Jamaica announced it would wet-lease a B757-200 from National Airlines (N8, Orlando Sanford), although Flightradar24 ADS-B data indicates that the contract has not yet commenced.
The Guyanese government's readiness to intervene stems from the need to preserve connectivity on the key Georgetown-New York JFK route, which Fly Jamaica used to serve. The lucrative service is also operated by Caribbean Airlines (BW, Port of Spain), while Surinam Airways (PY, Paramaribo International) and American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) operate from Guyana to Miami International. The traffic between the South American state and the US is expected to increase once oil exploration commences in Guyana shortly. Eastern Airlines (2D, Miami International) is planning to launch services from JFK to Georgetown later this year.
