Maya Regional Still Flying
In July Maya Island Air began flying daily to Cancun, Mexico; San Pedro
Sula, Honduras; and Guatemala City. They got off to a grand start with a million
dollar marketing campaign that included flying all of the national basketball
team to and from Cancun for the Cocaba tournament. But like everything that’s
tourism right now, business for Maya Island Air Regional slowed down and even
Maya concedes that on some days, flights were cancelled. But marketing and sales
manager Christina Kee says Maya remains committed to the routes.
Christina Kee, Marketing & Sales – Maya Island Air
“As with everyone in Belize tourism has been on a low but we know
it is picking up for the high season now and with the high season is coming
up and so our occupancy has been up and we’ve been booking as much as
possible, pushing out there especially in the different markets.”
Keith Swift,
“You say you’re looking out to the future but how bad has it been?”
Christina Kee,
“Well it hasn’t been bad, I won’t use the word bad. At
first it was difficult. We learnt and picked up very properly on it and we know
our weaknesses and we’ve strengthened those so now we feel that our efforts
are paying off.”
Keith Swift,
“We’ve heard of situations where flights had to be cancelled because
there weren’t enough passengers.”
Christina Kee,
“Well the reason why flights were cancelled, they were being discontinued
over a period of time because of the low season and we are not the only airline
that does that. That is done internationally as well, it only makes sense. But
now that the high season is coming in, our flights are going to be full daily
and those are going to be flying after December 7th.”
Maya says its most popular route is Cancun and the least flown route
is Honduras. The airline’s Christmas promotion is to buy three tickets
and get one free or in the case of groups of ten, one person flies free. Maya
says it plans begin flights to the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Jamaica.