Maya Island adds Caravan to fleet
Flying might not be on the top of everybody’s list of things to do lately, but local carriers aren’t being discouraged by that attitude. Like other members of the tourism sector, Belizean airline companies continue to make investments in the industry. Today, Maya Island Air unveiled the latest addition to its fleet. News 5 was there for the inaugural flight.
Winston Trapp, Manager, Maya Island Air
“We’re aggressively going after this market and we’re using this opportunity to introduce our newest fleet.”
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
That aeroplane took members of the media on its inaugural flight from Belize City’s Municipal Airstrip to San Pedro Town.
Trapp says this fourteen seater Cessna Grand Caravan, the first of eight, represents a major investment upwards of thirty million dollars, that Maya Island is placing in the tourism industry.
Winston Trapp
“We’ve actually moved our facilities, so we can make room for the new infrastructure that’s going to be built here. We have a nice good size building that going to be built here that has gift shop, coffee shop, as well as a nice arrival and departure area. Our customers will be very pleased over the next few months about the changes that Maya Island Air is undergoing.”
Those changes will not only include the acquisition of carriers, but a change of image which involves personnel training at all levels, starting with the pilots.
Winston Trapp
“Everything from safety procedures, including CPR, just the basic things that you would need. You never know what type of individuals you will have on the plane, so we’re really looking at our customer’s best interests. And with the situations that have happened in the U.S. and abroad, we’re using that as a template to see that we need to better educate our pilots and our staff as well. Not only to just deal with the day to day customers, but to scrutinise them, look at the passengers more and be more observant as to what goes on around you.”
At present Maya Island–a company that has been operating in Belize for forty years–flies to Corozal, San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Dangriga, Placencia, Punta Gorda and Flores, Guatemala. But according to Trapp, it’s the southern routes that are most lucrative.
Winston Trapp
“It’s a very profitable destination, especially Placencia. And as the tourist board is going out there and promoting more about Belize and the dive areas in the south, I feel that Placencia, Punta Gorda and Dangriga are definite key destinations, that instead of looking at it from a competition stand point, we need to look at it from a stand point of what we can do to better serve these areas.”
Additional expansion plans include new terminal buildings currently under construction in Placencia, Dangriga and Punta Gorda. Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
