Air Travel Disruption for South Caicos looms, Govt working on solution 

Turks and Caicos, September 13, 2024 – South Caicos residents last weekend shared an email from InterCaribbeanAirways which announces a 17-day pause on flights to the island beginning September 14.

Flights are set to resume October 1 says InterCaribbean, ‘with heavier frequency.’

The temporary suspension of service is due to need for “heavy maintenance” of aircraft explained the notice.

By Sunday, InterCaribbean issued a comprehensive explanation about the stop on flights.

“At the time the decision was confirmed to start the maintenance activities, only 58 passenger seats were sold out of the 1,292 available across the flight segments being cancelled. The impact on actual passenger bookings was therefore considered minimal in light of the numbers stated and the fact that there are ongoing ferry and charter services available between South Caicos and Providenciales,” said the company.

The airline has offered to service the route with a smaller aircraft, but snags in regulations prevented it. Other information from iCA questioned the competence of the TCIs Airport Authority who soon issued a lengthy statement of their own.

It said, in part, “To be clear, at no time did ICA advise the TCIAA of its intent to suspend services into South Caicos or contact the TCIAA to substantially coordinate mitigating solutions to its need to remove the current aircraft from service.”

Currently, the TCIAA and the Office of the Premier are working on an interim measure to minimize the negative impact of this suspension of domestic flight service.