Tropic Air adds to fleet

One industry in which healthy competition between two companies seems to be working, is domestic aviation. Each day Tropic and Maya Island airlines go wing to wing in an effort to carry the biggest share of the local and tourist traffic. Last week Maya Island celebrated forty years in the air, but today it was industry leader Tropic’s turn to show off the newest addition to its fleet. Ann-Marie reports.

Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting

A new single engine turbo-prop Cessna Caravan belonging to Tropic Air, flew out of the Belize Municipal Airstrip on its inaugural flight to San Pedro this morning.

What started out as a one aircraft company back in 1979 has grown into a ten-plane operation, eight of which are caravans, making Belize the home of the largest fleet in Central American. President of Tropic Air Johnny Greif says their twenty-five million dollar investment in new equipment is sound.

Johnny Greif, President, Tropic Air

“It’s almost like the plane was designed specifically for Tropic’s operation. It’s very simple, very easy to maintain, very quiet, carries a lot of people and carries them quickly. You say little, but it’s the biggest plane we have.

We found something that works and we’re just doing it over and over. We’re sticking to one type of aircraft, we’re sticking to the same formula, where we wait until a destination can support at least two flights a day, and then we just keep adding flights. We just added three flights to Corozal, so we’re five times a day there now, eleven times a day to San Pedro, six times a day south, except for Placencia, which is about eight times a day. So it’s just really more of the same, our game plan is set, it works so we’re not gonna…if it’s not broken we’re not gonna fix it.”

And Greif says it’s working although expansion outside Belize will naturally come slowly.

Johnny Greif

“We’re going to Flores twice a day now, possibly Honduras, possibly Mexico as far as Cancun, possibly something a little closer in Mexico. I don’t want to give too much away.”

Although Greif doesn’t want to give too much away, he admits growth is inevitable.

Johnny Greif

“It’s difficult to expand these outside markets because it’s so expansive. You have to deal with foreign governments and when Tropic flies to Cancun as we did in 1990, we’re burdened with the same expenses that American or Delta would be, as far as ground crew and infrastructure. So it’s a little risky, but once you’ve expanded as far as you can inside Belize, it’s all that’s left. So to not grow in the airline business is to die, so we’re gonna continue to grow.”

Which is good news, for a local airline, which had its share of problems early on.

Johnny Greif

“We grew very, very fast. We were making a lot of sales, we we’re making a lot of collections. Cash flow was a problem, we had the Gulf War which hit us hard, but we learnt from all that and it’s made us even stronger.”

Stronger he says, to bounce back from the events of September eleventh, an event that took its toll on tourist arrivals.

Johnny Greif

“We’re off probably nine, ten, eleven percent year to date. And considering Belize as a destination and Tropic as an airline, we think those are excellent numbers. We think we’re doing really good.”

With renovations done to several Tropic Air offices, along with a new Dangriga terminal, Greif is optimistic that his airline is ready to maintain its majority share of the highly competitive local aviation industry. Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.