First low-cost Caribbean airline to be launched in Jamaica: media

A group of entrepreneurs has reportedly applied to the Jamaican government to create the first Caribbean low-cost airline.

According to The Jamaica Observer, the airline will launch mid-2008. The airline will also seek to open new markets and new routes. It will service the Caribbean, the United States and Latin America.

Group head representative Ian Burns reportedly told the publication: "We have made a formal application to the Jamaican Civil Aviation Authority under the name of Airone Ventures Ltd, although this isn't the name that we will be flying under. We have the potential to add one million tourist arrivals to Jamaica within five years, a huge boost to the tourism industry."

Burns added that there are plans to employ over 200 persons initially during the coming months.

According to the same report, the Chairman noted "Jamaica had invested in infrastructure by providing excellent facilities at Norman Manley and Donald Sangster International airports." He believes that it can now connect people and businesses and bring far greater access to the region, allowing for Jamaicans and the diaspora to meet on a more frequent basis.

Burns also said, "We will be providing non-stop airlinks to the Caribbean, the United States and Latin America and will be using Boeing 737-300 aircraft. The idea is to develop Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport as an international hub for the Caribbean."

"Presently, 1.7 million passengers go through it every year and right now infrastructure is being built to accommodate four million passengers a year. In our first year of operations we are projecting to have 376,000 of our passengers pass through Kingston's number one airport. We see the diaspora as being a huge market and we will be concentrating heavily on it while also looking to the tourism industry."