REDjet safety review soon done

Two months after starting flights to Guyana, the Barbados-based airline is still waiting for approval from Jamaica and Trinidad to begin serving those destinations.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Thursday July 7, 2011 - Trinidad and Tobago's aviation authority says it will complete a safety review of low-budget airline REDjet in another week, according to a report in the local media.

Newsday today reported that Director General of the Trinidad and Tobago Civil Aviation Authority (TTCAA) Ramesh Lutchmedial had told the newspaper, "that matter should be resolved shortly. I’d say within a week."

The civil aviation authorities in Jamaica are also undertaking a review.

Two months after starting flights to Guyana, the Barbados-based airline is still waiting for approval from Jamaica and Trinidad to begin serving those destinations. The carrier has faced several obstacles, the latest being concerns about safety.

However, Barbados' Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has accused Trinidad and Tobago of second-guessing the certification by his country and launching a smear campaign against REDjet.

“We certified REDjet in Barbados as safe. We are being second-guessed on that. Other people certify their aircraft and we don’t second-guess them,” he said at the CARICOM Heads meeting in St. Kitts last weekend. “If this is the way these issues are going to be handled, I only want to know the rules. I just want to know how people are playing the game; I can play the game as well as they can play it.”

While it awaits the green light from Kingston and Port of Spain, REDjet is in discussions with Grenada, St. Kitts and St. Marteen about starting flights to those countries. It says it will soon announce new destinations.

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