Caribbean Airlines recently renovated its fleets. On January 14, the airline took its inaugural flight with the Boeing 737 MAX 8, a new aircraft for the airline.
This new rollout of fleet comes as the airline celebrates its 15th birthday.
Caribbean Airlines, which is headquartered in Port of Spain in Trinidad & Tobago, took passengers from the city’s Piarco International airport to Kingston, Jamaica. During the inaugural flight, passengers received bags of goodies, and some won 15,000 miles air miles for flying on the service.
“The introduction of this new aircraft into service represents Caribbean Airlines’ initiative to reset expectations for 2022,” said the carrier’s chief executive, Garvin Medera. “The 737-8 is the most technologically advanced aircraft in the world, and it brings a range of benefits for Caribbean Airlines, our customers, and the environment.”
The plane arrived at its home airport on November 17th. The aircraft is outfitted with 160 seats in a two-class configuration. It took a two-hour and 58-minute hop from POS to Kingston, Jamaica, arriving at 09:42 ET.
“The aircraft offers state-of-the-art technology and an upgraded level of comfort in both the business class and economy cabin, including in seat power for mobile devices, a new sky interior, sleek modern seats and much more. We’re really excited about the plans and improvements for the coming year, all done with you in mind,” Garvin Medera, commented.
Medera added that the new aircraft is set to propel Caribbean Airlines into a more modern, fuel-efficient future, and the airline has embraced a more up-to-date livery to showcase its investment. As well as being a more contemporary aircraft than its NGs, the MAX has improved things on the inside too.
MAX features 16 business class seats, 36 extra-legroom economy seats, and 108 regular economy. The business class seats are leather recliners with a pitch of 45”, while the extra legroom seats boast 35” of pitch. Back in economy, it’s a fairly standard 30 or so inches of space per person.
In business and ‘Caribbean Plus,’ passengers will find both AC and USB charging. Elsewhere, just USB is available. Free in-flight entertainment is delivered via a 13.3” seat back screen, while LED mood lighting will create what the airline calls a ‘relaxing ambiance.’
Caribbean Airlines is moving to an all-737 MAX jet fleet by mid-2022. It has four more Boeing 737 Max 8s awaiting entry into service, and one on order. The airline announced the Max order in 2018 and the aircraft are destined to replace the older 737-800 models.
While it will retain its ATRs for regional service, for the longer trips it expects to have a complete fleet of 737 MAX potentially as soon as July this year.
The airline currently has seven ATR 72-600 turboprops in operation, as well as seven earlier-generation Boeing 737-800 aircraft. Caribbean Airlines now serves 22 cities across the Caribbean, North and Latin America.