Fly Jamaica’s Toronto service pushed back to November

Fly Jamaica has pushed back the commencement of its Toronto service owing to non-completion of the certification and paperwork by the Jamaican authorities, reported Commercial Director Roxanne Reece yesterday.

The airline will now commence its Toronto service sometime in mid-November, said Reece. She attributed the postponement to delays in the certification by a number of agencies. The service between Georgetown and Toronto was to have commenced yesterday.

Further, Fly Jamaica has appealed the US authorities’ decision to deny direct flights between Guyana and New York to the start-up airline and is calling on Guyanese locally and abroad to sign a petition calling on the authorities to grant permission for this.

The airline, owned by Guyanese and Jamaican investors,  commenced a one-stop flight to New York two weeks ago and had wanted to graduate this to a non-stop service.

However, the US aviation authorities denied Fly Jamaica’s request for direct flights.

“We have appealed…we don’t know what will happen…we don’t know if they will reopen the case,” said Reece yesterday during an informal session with reporters. She said that should about 200,000 signatures be garnered these will be taken to officials in the United States Congress with a view to nudging the authorities in the direction of approving the direct flights. Reece made the point that during the winter months in the US, many persons advanced in age return to the country of their birth. She said that some of them may be wheelchair-bound and would be better suited to direct flights to and from Guyana.

She said that during the application process, the airline made the point that    Delta had ceased operations between Georgetown and New York in May this year and that this left no option for direct flights northbound on the route.

Reece said that because of the stringent post-9/11 regulations, all passengers to the United States must disembark the aircraft and be