Aviation Tribune talks to Trevor Sadler, Chief Executive Officer of interCaribbean Airways, a successful passenger airline based in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The airline offers scheduled domestic and regional services from its hub at Providenciales, Turks & Caicos, to multiple destinations in the Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
It all started when Mr. Lyndon R. Gardiner, Founder and Chairman, purchased his first plane in 1991 and started providing an informal but popular on-demand air taxi service that he called InterIsland Airways. In those nearly unregulated days of flying in the Turks and Caicos, he was often called out in the middle of the night to fly Medevac flights after having put in a full day. He felt a strong obligation to assist, as a Medevac flight flown by his long-time friend, the late Howard Hamilton, saved his own life after a devastating motorcycle accident on Grand Turk that broke his legs.
By 1999 Gardiner had acquired a small fleet and was running a full-fledged charter service. Realizing that his true potential lay in business, not flying, he left the piloting to others and concentrated on growing his fledgling airline.
In 2003 the Turks and Caicos Government started a push toward regional and international development and it seemed the time had come for the Turks and Caicos to have its own airline. A scheduled license was applied for and granted, and thus began an ambitious expansion project that involved adding international destinations and acquiring larger and faster aircraft. The company re-branded to become Air Turks & Caicos to serve key international destinations, with daily scheduled flights to cities in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Bahamas and Puerto Rico.
In 2013 after operating for 10 years as Air Turks & Caicos, the company re-branded from Air Turks & Caicos to interCaribbean Airways to embrace new opportunities across the Caribbean.
Can you briefly tell us about the past and present of interCaribbean?
interCaribbean is the renamed nearly 25 year old airline formed as interIsland Airways renamed Air Turks & Caicos in 2003 to begin international services and in renamed to interCaribbean in 2013 to reflect the new opportunities for the company across the Caribbean not simply to fly back and forth to our home base of the Turks & Caicos Islands.
Where do you see interCaribbean in five years time?
We see our company growing across the entire Caribbean, within the framework of what is possible using the available freedoms granted to us. The evolution of our growth will see a much larger and stronger airline.
How would you describe your management style?
I joined the company to lead the change to a completely different airline, it is not a role that I alone can accomplish so it is a matter of involving the core management to be involved and lead their departments. We have challenges in having a limited number of airline experienced resources, so we have to help develop the skills to allow that each person becomes a positive practitioner in their irrespective fields of responsibilities I am very much hands on…
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