THE United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has rejected applications from Fly Jamaica and Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) which sought permission to have direct flights between Guyana and New York.
This means that passengers using this service will have to intransit in Jamaica and Trinidad respectively, before heading to New York.DOT on Monday stated that the two airlines failed to justify that the operations would serve the public good, one of the criteria used in assessing applications.

US Transportation Department stated, “Fly Jamaica has begun serving the Georgetown-New York market on a one-stop basis via Kingston, Jamaica. In light of these existing Georgetown-New York services and the lack of a showing by the applicant on the record that there is a truly demonstrable need for additional Georgetown-New York services, we are unable to find that Fly Jamaica seventh freedom turnaround proposals satisfy our public interest test for the type of extraordinary authority at issue. We will, therefore, deny the applications of Fly Jamaica.”
According to the US, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) and Airlines for America (A4A) each filed consolidated objections to the applications of Fly Jamaica and CAL, and asserted that the requests of Fly Jamaica and CAL are extra bilateral, and that the department should deny the applications.
The documents revealed that Fly Jamaica filed its application on July 16, 2013, while CAL filed just two days after.
Meanwhile the Guyana Chronicle sought responses from the two airlines.
Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce Irfaan Ali said that he will issue an official statement later because he has not had a chance to review the full situation.