Delta confirms Guyana pull-out

Delta Airlines today confirmed that it will no longer offer its service to Guyana effective May 6th of this year.

“Delta Air Lines will close its station in Georgetown, Guyana discontinuing flights between the John F. Kennedy International Airport and the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, effective    May 6th, 2013 due to poor performance of the route”, Sarah Lora, General Manager, Corporate Communications in Latin America and Caribbean told Stabroek News today.

delta“Although Delta would prefer to continue serving the market, flights between Georgetown and New York’s JFK International Airport have experienced a significant decline in passenger loads and revenues for the past 18 months, leading to unsustainable losses. We have made the difficult decision to eliminate our Georgetown service to better focus our resources on profitable markets” Lora went on to state.

She added that Delta will make contact with customers booked on their flights for after May 6th and arrange alternative transport or full refunds.

Delta is asking that customers calling from Guyana to call its 1-800-221-1212 number and for others to use 1-800-241-4141.

Delta’s exit is a blow for airlift into the country following the collapse of EZjet last year which had also serviced the New York to Georgetown route. The departure of Delta leaves Caribbean Airlines – recently named as Guyana’s flag carrier – with a monopoly on the route. Whenever a monopoly has occurred in the past, airfares have tended to move up.

Delta has been running direct flights from Guyana to New York Since 2008.