interCaribbean Airways (JY, Providenciales) has announced it will operate a reduced schedule between November 11 and December 15, 2018, in order to avoid further cancellations caused by the ongoing crew shortage.
Chairman Lyndon Gardiner issued an apology to passengers affected by the cancellations, admitting that the carrier should have taken a remedial action earlier.
"The root cause was an unforeseen delay of several weeks in the training schedule for newly hired flight crew after their service provider experienced a protracted delay in their flight simulator being operational," the carrier explained in a statement.
interCarribean Airways did not specify which flights would be cut from the schedule over the next month.
The carrier's need for more staff was mostly caused by its rapid expansion which saw interCaribbean open its second connecting hub on Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. The carrier is also in the process of adding its two first E145LIs. The first of the two Embraer jets, N253EC (msn 14501043) was already repositioned to Providenciales in August 2018, but is yet to be deployed in revenue service. The other unit, N161EC (msn 14501063) has been undergoing maintenance at Mena since April 2018.
According to the ch-aviation fleets module, interCaribbean Airways already operates three DHC-6-300s and eight E120s. It also operates two Beech 99s one BN-2, along with a King Air 200 aircraft and a Cessna 401.
