Re: Fly Jamaica Airways Limited : Application dated October 11, 2012

for a Foreign Air Carrier Permit pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 41301 and an 

Application for an Exemption from the Foreign Air Carrier Permit 

requirement pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 40109(c) 

1. I, John Gilmore, am an interested party with respect to the instant 

application. I have been accepted as an interested party by the Department in 

other similar proceedings and am party to several such ongoing at this time.

2. I support this application by Fly Jamaica Airways Limited (Fly Jamaica). 

The applicant is an unsubsidized private sector corporation licensed in Jamaica, 

an IASA Category 1 country and its efforts should be encouraged by the 

Department in the US public interest and more generally in the interest of broader 

choice for the travelling public. 

Historically Caribbean based airlines have been government owned and heavily 

subsidized and have distorted the competitive landscape inhibiting the 

emergence of Caribbean based private sector, unsubsidized airlines and thereby 

perpetuating the need for the subsidized airlines and the damage they do to their 

homeland by the diversion of much needed budgetary resources from more

pressing social and economic problems.

Such subsidized competition continues to exist in the US – Jamaica market 

which Fly Jamaica seeks authority to serve. Caribbean Airlines, owned by the 

Governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, is heavily subsidized, paying 

only $ 1.50 per US Gallon for Jet Fuel on its Trinidad operations and $ 2.34 on its 

Jamaican operations the difference between that and the current market price of 

U$ 3.25 being paid to it as a subsidy by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago 

in addition to direct subsidies to cover its ongoing losses. The Government of 

Jamaica does not contribute to these subsidies.

Fly Jamaica will have to deal with this subsidized competition, competition in the 

form of artificially low prices of which British Airways has recently publicly 

complained with respect to its London – Trinidad service.

I urge the Department in approving this application to maintain a watching brief 

on the routes served by Fly Jamaica where it is in competition with Caribbean 

Airlines to ensure that the latter does not engage in predatory pricing enabled by 

its subsidies. 

3. I would make the observation that the applicant has not in its application 

provided the flight schedule information required by 14 CFR §211.20 (c) (2). This 

omission makes it difficult to evaluate whether its proposed service is primarily 

focused on the Jamaica – US market rather than on the Guyana - US market via 

Jamaica. I note that Fly Jamaica’s AOC limits it to the Jamaica – New York and 
Jamaica – Guyana routes and that its AOC proving flights under Jamaican CAA 

supervision included the Jamaica – Guyana route.

While Fly Jamaica, as a Jamaican controlled company, would be ineligible for 

Guyana – US route authority under the Bermuda I and II ASAs without an waiver 

of the homeland ownership requirement, I would argue that such an exemption if 

sought should be granted to encourage such private sectors initiatives. 

Notwithstanding, any focus on connecting traffic ex Guyana would be no different 

than the traffic carried by Emirates over Dubai, BA over London, Lufthansa over 

Frankfurt or Air France/KLM over Paris and Amsterdam.

4. The final point I wish to raise relates to the financial fitness test applied in 

such foreign air carrier permit and exemption applications.

The Department applies a ‘six month zero revenue’ capital requirement in license 

applications from US based start up airlines: that the airline have sufficient cash 

on hand or committed at start up to operate its proposed schedule for six months 

with no revenues.

It would be useful for prospective start up applicants for foreign air carrier 

permits, as is the case with Fly Jamaica, to know whether that requirement also 

is applicable them, whether the local CAA certification of financial fitness as part 

of an IASA Category 1 AOC process is sufficient or whether the requirement is 

somewhere between the two.

Respectfully submitted this 25th day of October, 2012 by and on behalf of

/s/ John Gilmore 

_______________________

John Gilmore

48 – 7 St. Antoine West

Montreal, QC H2Z 1G8

514 716 7665

jptgilmore@hotmail.com
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 

I hereby certify that on this 25th day of October, 2012, a copy of this Certificate of 

Service and of my foregoing Answer to the October 11, 2012 Application by Fly 

Jamaica Airways Limited for a Foreign Air Carrier Permit pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 

41301 and an Application for an Exemption from the Foreign Air Carrier Permit 

requirement pursuant to 49 U.S.C. § 40109(c) was filed on the Docket at 

www.regulations.gov and served by electronic mail : 

On Counsel for the Applicant at pmurphy@lopmurphy.com; on Robert Finamore

of the US DOT at robert.finamore@dot.gov; and, on each of the persons named 

below in the Service List provided by the Applicant .

/s/ John Gilmore 

_______________________________ 

John Gilmore

48 – 7 St. Antoine West

Montreal, QC H2Z 1G8

514 716 7665

jptgilmore@hotmail.com

carl.nelson@aa.com;

jrichardson@johnlrichardson.com; jcanny@amerijet.com;

dan.weiss@united.com; steve.morrissey@united.com; 

jonathan.linde@united.com;

sascha.vanderbellen@delta.com; jeff.morgan@delta.com;

sametta.c.barnett@delta.com;

esauer@ssd.com; msinick@ssd.com;

john.fredericksen@suncountry.com;

jyoung@yklaw.com;

anita.mosner@hklaw.com; jennifer.nowak@hklaw;

howard.kass@usairways.com;

mlbenge@zsrlaw.com; jhfoglia@zsrlaw.com;