AIR Jamaica chief executive Chris Zacca has complained to the Jamaican government that UK charter carriers are flooding the market
He said he is particularly concerned with non-scheduled passengers just booking seat-only flights.
The Jamaican government has a rule which limits charter carriers to just 15% seat-only traffic in total, but Zacca claims this is being broken.
He said: “We have complained the government saying that charters must play the game fairly. Air Jamaica expects the government to police the rules better.”
Zacca mentioned Airtours and Monarch as the culprits for bringing overcapacity to the Jamaican market. “There’s been an increase in the number of charter carriers. But, my concerns are with the seat-only passengers.”
Zacca said that Air Jamaica faces its biggest test this summer, partly because of the charter increases, but also due to a potential slowdown in Jamaican tourism and a bottoming out of ethnic traffic. His fears come as the airline completes major investment this year in new intra-Caribbean routes and aircraft.
He claimed numbers to Jamaica were up around 6% this year, but UK visitors only made up around 10% out of the 2m annual visits.
To attract more visitors from the UK, the airline has started a marketing drive in the UK using its $3m investment in a new Airbus A340 for Heathrow-Montego Bay flights as the main weapon. Zacca said the ability to offer a new state-of-the-art aircraft will revitalise ethnic traffic from the UK.
“We have relied on ethnic traffic too much, but there is still business to be had from Jamaicans living in the UK,” he said.
TABLE: Air Jamaica: wants charter airlines to play fair and stick togovernment rules on seat-only traffic