Of the four Caribbean pure jet airlines (Air Aruba, Air Jamaica, ALM Antillean Airlines and BWIA among them), the latter was the largest and the only one to operate the Lockheed L-1011 TriStar.

The airline’s roots stretched beyond the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean to New Zealand, at least in terms of the nationality of its founder, Lowell Yerex, a World War I fighter pilot who planted his seed in Trinidad. in 1939 so that he could re-establish what had become suspended air service to Barbados. Links were restored on November 27 of the following year with a single Lockheed L-18 Lodestar, registered VP-TAE. Tobago is also served three times a week.

Although World War II generally frustrated commercial airline operations, they expanded in the Caribbean. The 1942 acquisition of two Lockheed L-14 Electras allowed it to operate charter flights to US military bases there.

Transformed, the following year, into a limited company and infused with financial plasma from the British government, it purchased three commercially converted Hudson bombers, while the completion of many small Caribbean island airfields enabled it to spread its wings to Grenada and the Dominican Republic, as well as to Guyana in South America.

No longer hampered by the war, she acquired four more Lodestars for a proper purpose in 1945.

A change of ownership two years later, to British South American Airways (BSAA), earned the temporary nomenclature of British International Airways, a subsidiary of the BSAA, although it reverted to its original British West Indian Airways title on June 24, 1948. To meet increased demand, it purchased five 24-passenger Vickers Viking airliners, which featured twin-piston air propellers and twin vertical tails and rested on tailwheels.

Another change in ownership occurred the following year, when the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) merged BSAA, transforming BWIA into a subsidiary. It ceded several routes to northern Jamaica from parent BOAC, which supported its expansion monetarily, replaced its L-18 Lodestars with three 28-seat Douglas Dakotas, but even these proved inadequate for its ambitious expansion plans.

Moving from piston to turboprop technology, it acquired four Vickers V.700 Viscounts, powered by Rolls Royce Dart engines, capable of offering passengers greater speed and comfort from 1955.

Because these aircraft were too large to serve the Leeward Islands, BWIA, which held the majority stake, formed the Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT), operating shorter teams suited to the fringe.

Spreading its wings across the Atlantic in 1960 with chartered four-engine Bristol Britannias, BWIA inaugurated service to Jamaica and Barbados from London with an intermediate stop in New York.

However, a third change in ownership, albeit after lengthy negotiations, occurred the following year, on November 1, 1961, when the Trinidad and Tobago government purchased 90 percent of BWIA from BOAC.

“British West Indian Airways is conceived by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago as a national airline for the West Indies area as a whole, and steps are now being taken to implement this policy,” according to Dr. Eric Williams, then Prime Barbadian minister. .

A Boeing 707, the airline’s first pure jet type, was chartered from BOAC that year to replace the Bristol Britannia on the transatlantic route, and by 1965, it had also replaced the Boeing 727-100 “Sunjets” with its Viscounts on the US services Miami and New York.

Canada joined the route system on May 3, 1969, when the BWIA was granted a temporary license to operate a Trinidad-Barbados-Antigua-Toronto sector.

By standardizing on the Boeing 707 aircraft in 1971, BWIA was able to offer a 45 percent increase in seating capacity.

“This was also a year of unprecedented growth in the charter market,” according to “Corporate Timeline” (BWIA International Airways, Corporate Communications Department, Oct. 1, 1996). “BWIA tripled the number of charter flights in the UK from eight to 24, and continued to improve services from Miami with a continuation of the trend of faster services, coupled with increased capacity.”

Flight schedules from the Eastern Caribbean to New York and Toronto were also improved.

A milestone occurred on April 5, 1974, when it launched a weekly scheduled service to London-Heathrow, a considerable improvement over the previous private charter flight to Gatwick.

An order for a single Douglas DC-9-30CF Convertible Freighter and four stretch-body DC-9-50s materialized four years later, on June 28, when the first aircraft took delivery.

A merger on January 1, 1980 with Trinidad and Tobago Air Services, which had been formed six years earlier to operate high-frequency connecting flights between the two cities inherent in its designation, allowed it to become a single national, Caribbean and Caribbean airline. intercontinental. .

The first of four L-1011-500s, delivered on January 29 of that year, enabled it to offer a wide-body type for the first time and a 31 percent capacity increase over the 707s it replaced on the London route two months later. the 28th of March. With the delivery of the fourth aircraft in 1982, the 707s were completely withdrawn from the fleet and entirely replaced with TriStars to New York, Toronto, London, Manchester, Frankfurt and Zurich.

Expansion continued to Martinique with Hawker Siddeley HS.748 turboprops and Baltimore with pure jets.

1985 was marked by the delivery of the first of nine MD-83s, configured with 12 business-class seats and 108 economy-class seats, gradually replacing the DC-9-50s in parts of Miami.

With 2,032 employees systemwide in 1987, BWIA operated four DC-9-50s, three MD-83s, and four L-1011-500s.

Privatized, the Caribbean airline, which was incorporated as BWIA International Airways, Limited, on February 15, 1995, was now listed on the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange.

The 21st century brought significant changes and declines. In 2000, for example, a new light green and blue steel pin drum livery, symbolizing Tobago, was introduced, replacing the old gold, yellow and white, while a fleet modernization program was implemented. Two four-engine Airbus A-340-300s, intended to replace the TriStar 500, have been ordered, comprising 9Y-JIL with 40 business class and 215 economy seats and 9Y-TJN with 32 business class seats and 252 economy class.

Although it reversed its decision to replace its MD-83s with A-321-100s on Caribbean and North American routes, it received two in the event, registered 9Y-BWA and -BWB, before standardizing on Boeing 737-800s, which It accommodated 16 business and 138 economy passengers.

While, as with any airline, its route system has varied over the years with the addition and removal of destinations, it has served Antigua, Barbados, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, Saint Lucia, St. Maarten, Trinidad and Tobago in Caribbean; Guyana, Suriname and Venezuela in South America; New and Miami in the US; Toronto in Canada; and London, Manchester and Frankfurt in Europe from primary flight bases in Trinidad and secondary in Barbados.

Although it peaked at operating some 660 weekly flights and carrying 1.4 million passengers in 2003, profitability often failed to match these lofty figures, requiring multiple infusions from the Trinidad and Tobago government to ensure its financial momentum. continuous.

However, three years later, failure of the unions to agree on new contract terms resulted in Trinidad and Tobago’s national airline going bankrupt after 66 years of operation.

From its ashes emerged the state-owned company BWIA, which replaced Caribbean Airlines on September 27, 2006 with a fleet of six 737-800s and a single A-340-300.

Sources:

“Corporate Timeline”, BWIA International Airways, Limited, Corporate Communications Department, October 1, 1996.