Officials of Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) have denied reports that the entire fleet of ATR 72-600 turboprop aircraft have been down for the last three days, forcing the airline to press into service its fleet of Boeing-737-800 jet aircraft to alleviate the backlog of stranded passengers.
In response to a report in the Sunday Guardian, CAL’s head of Corporate Communications, Dionne Ligoure explained that two ATR’s were undergoing planned, scheduled maintenance and one was briefly taken out of service last Thursday to resolve a technical issue.
“That particular aircraft was returned to service within a 24 hour period,” she said.
“Although some services were delayed, the airline moved all confirmed customers and also several hundred persons who did not hold confirmed bookings.
“Additionally, it is normal for the Boeing 737 fleet to be used to support the operations during these high demand periods.
As indicated in media releases issued by Caribbean Airlines on December 28 and 29, the 737 fleet was being used to operate several consolidated services.”
Ligoure emphasised that safety is CAL’s foremost priority and during the busy holiday period the airline has done all possible to manage its resources to provide a safe and reliable service to customers.
She added: “The airline ensured that the airbridge operation was given top priority and increased the scheduled seat capacity over several days. For example, 4432 seats were provided on December 29.”