Redjet
Whenever there is a new entrant to a choked up, monopolised, poorly served market, such as the one Redjet is currently breaking into, there will always be armchair experts who don't see the bigger picture and talk only of failure.
Yes, Barbados has a poort track record when it comes to airline successes but take a look at how these companies were mismanaged and run into the ground. A lean loco cannot be compared to these.
There is a huge slice of the market that has been marginalised by the ridiculously high fares that were being charged on Liat / CAL. These airlines would be dead and buried long ago if they were operating in Europe/US or anywhere else in the developed world. Cronyism, corruption, mismanagement and idiotic unions are the order of the day, propped up by crazy ticket prices and government subsidies; these airlines are on life support and incapable of standing on their own. At some point someone may just have to switch off the machine.
It's a fact that when a lowcost airline enters a market where none has entered before, the first reaction is that prices go down. Competitors with higher cost bases immediately see their revenues fall off as the new entrant starts to take up more and more of the market they saw as theirs and theirs alone, so they must react by lowering their prices in turn. In addition to this and even more importantly, the new airline stimulates induced demand, allowing more people to fly, something that the existing high fare airline can never do.
On the subject of Redjet's competitors, one might question the logic of one basket case airline (CAL) taking over another basket case airline (Air Jamaica) but the geniuses who dreamed that brain-fart up did so solely with monopoly in mind. There is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the mini-basket case regional carrier, Liat, was next on their list. This would essentially have sealed off the entire regional market and kept consumers' choices limited, luckily that hasn't happened.
A new entrant comes along, one the incumbents know they must compete with, cannot ignore, and all of a sudden there are issues with traffic rights, safety etc It's the most common reaction when the established carriers are threatened to be knocked off their perches, especially in an awkward and difficult business environment like the Caribbean. To top it off, the above mentioned monopoly plan by Cal has more or less been sunk now and I wonder what is being said around the boardroom table about their recent Air Jamaica aquisition.
Every starting airline has teething problems with its punctuality and scheduling and no one ever gets it bang-on the first time around but I've seen the punctuality stats and they are excellent for a start-up airline finding it's feet in the market. The previous delays and cancellations are likely more to do with having just 2 aircraft and a few routes. If one aircraft is on maintainance then there is not much in the way of spare capacity to pick up the slack, the result then is typically long delays. These problems are easier to tackle as the route network and fleet grows.
The lowcost carrier model has been spreading all over the world for years and it will become established in the Caribbean also, you're no different to anywhere else!
My money is on Redjet being a long-lasting fixture on the Caribbean landscape.
D.O.G