Maxine McCoy Moore, Office Manager of McCoy’s Lodge

Cayman Airways Express Service needs at least one more aircraft to service the Sister Islands, it has been suggested. Maxine McCoy-Moore, Office Manager of McCoy’s Fishing and Diving Lodge on Little Cayman, echoed the opinion of many on the Island when she said that the scheduled flights are always booked and customers were having trouble booking seats six months in advance.

“More planes would be the best thing,” said Ms McCoy-Moore. She explained that, before Island Air (IA) discontinued their scheduled service between the three Islands in June of last year, they were running two Navajo aircraft.

Therefore, with the two CAL Express Twin Otter planes, there were four aircraft servicing Sister Islands. Without Island Air, there is now a shortage, and the Express Service should make that up, she thought.

She said that the Express schedule worked well between the Sister Islands when IA was in operation, and Little Cayman residents needing to spend a day on Cayman Brac could travel at 8:30 am and return at 5:30 pm. However, when IA shelved their scheduled service to focus on their charter service, the Express adopted the old IA schedule.

So now, they must travel mid-morning going to the Brac and mid-afternoon to come home. “This doesn’t fit the Caymanian person,” she thought. Suzy Soto, who runs a guest house on Little Cayman, said that having only two flights daily from the Brac to Little Cayman was crippling the construction industry on the small Island.

“Also, any residents that need to go to Little Cayman or Grand Cayman are being told the flights are full and will have to wait a week to get over. I had one worker who was on wait list from the Brac to get to Little Cayman and had to stand-by for every flight,” she said.

“People are being told that the flights are full, but go and stand-by, get on and there are up to seven empty seats... come on! They got rid of Island Air and are unable to fill the need.” Ms Soto added, “If (Tourism) Minister Clifford is doing a study of CAL, he’d better get a grip on the Sister Islands and the totally inadequate service.

The pilots are so great, efficient and accommodating, but there is a definite lack of efficiency on the reservations side.” She emphasized that, as well as the pilots, there are Express staff members who go out of their way to try and help Sister Islands residents, like CAL Chairman of the Board of Cargo Thom Guyton, and CAL Express Operations Manager Lucy Scott.

“The ground crew in Little Cayman and the pilots all try and help and are so nice,” she said. “It seems to lie within the reservation system and that is what needs to be changed, along with rescheduling, putting on extra sections at peak time from Little Cayman to the Brac Friday nights and early Monday mornings to return to Little Cayman.”

Ms McCoy Moore pointed out that the CAL 1-800 number was not working for Little Cayman and Cayman Brac. She said that travellers were finding that, when they pressed zero, as instructed, to get more information on the Sister Islands, there was often no one there.

One of the problems with the flight schedule is with customers who decide to travel at the last minute, explained Ms Scott. She noted that high season runs roughly November through April, so this is the busiest time of the year. The airline is making six round trips per day, and sometimes eight, except for Thursdays, and these three-point trips stop at each Island.

As Operations Manager, she looks ahead to see what extra sections are needed, and the airline is adding flights as fast as they can, but have to account for pilot duty rest time and maintenance days. “It all boils down to the customer. In the real world, you don’t just book the day before,” she said. The airline is running the maximum that the aircraft and the pilots can do.”

Travellers must pay three days in advance or when they book to hold a seat, which cuts down on running empty seats. However, she explained that sometimes overseas visitors get into Grand Cayman late and miss their flight. There was nothing they could do about that, since people very often booked the different portions of their flights separately, and may book it themselves on-line.

“There is just no way we can control that. But the empty seats on flights are paid for, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to continue to fly,” she said. Kate Ferreira, Manager of Southern Cross Club on Little Cayman, noted that one of the biggest problems was that guests are sometimes asked to send their luggage on a day ahead of their departure from Little Cayman.

She added that that lack of seats means the resort loses business. “We sometimes have rooms available, but can’t get the guests here,” she said. “It’s frustrating, especially when we’re losing business. We had one guest who wanted to extend his stay for another day, but couldn’t get a flight out.”