Caribbean Airlines published the loss numbers. Dominica, St Kitts, and the Ogle-Suriname route end June 1.

Trinidad’s Transport and Civil Aviation Minister Eli Zakour told Parliament on Thursday what most of the region had already suspected: Caribbean Airlines’ 2023 Eastern Caribbean expansion was launched without sufficient commercial justification and the routes had been losing money continuously since. The Route Oversight Committee’s review put the combined losses at $18.84 million.

By route: Dominica lost $0.73 million. St Kitts lost $1.65 million. The Ogle-to-Suriname corridor out of Guyana lost $1.24 million. Martinique lost $1.23 million. Guadeloupe lost $1.86 million. All five take effect June 1: the first three discontinued outright, the French islands reduced from four weekly flights to two.

CAL framed the move as part of a continued network adjustment strategy and announced it is pursuing a codeshare agreement with an unnamed regional airline partner. The codeshare framing matters. It is the airline telling the diaspora and the islands losing service: we are not abandoning the routes, we are seeking partners to fly them on our behalf. Whether that materializes — and which carrier signs — will determine what actually exists by July.

For the diaspora, the question is older than this announcement. Caribbean Airlines retired its last 737-800 three weeks ago. It then cut Jamaica-to-Fort Lauderdale in November. Now it cuts Dominica, St Kitts, Ogle-Suriname, and trims the French islands. The trans-Caribbean network that the diaspora has used to navigate back home for two generations is reshaping faster than at any point since BWIA folded. Family in Roseau or Basseterre may now require an itinerary through Bridgetown or Antigua that did not exist as a routine option a year ago.

The losses are real. The discipline is necessary. The diaspora cost is also real. Both are true at once.

Source: Jamaica Gleaner CMC, Dominica News Online, News Room Guyana, May 22-23, 2026