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Amber Group is two years behind on its plan to launch a flying service in Jamaica, using recreational aircraft, but it is very much alive, the company’s CEO, Dushyant Savadia, has said.
Having previously furloughed staff amid delays in the approval of permits for the service that will operate as Amber Aviation, Savadia now says three months ago, he brought back pilots onto the payroll, amid continued review of his operation by the aviation authorities.
The service, which is six years in planning, was initially projected to launch in January 2023.
In the run-up to that date, Amber Aviation acquired five ultralight aircraft and sent three pilots to South Africa for nine months of training in operating the ultralights as well as safety protocols.
However, the company later disposed of three crafts in the fleet, while discussions with industry operators and government agencies, including the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, JCAA, and negotiations over permits continued beyond the projected start-up of the service.
Amid the delays, one of the trained pilots turned to operating a taxi for a tour company to earn a living in the interim, another was doing odds jobs, while the third was sponsored by Amber for local advanced pilot training, Savadia said.
However, all the pilots have now been rehired, and the company is again in the process of re-upping the fleet of aircraft.
“After three years, and the expenses, I’ve got aircrafts here, [and] we rehired all the pilots back on the payroll,” Savadia said in an interview with the Financial Gleaner.
In total, Amber has spent US$1.2 million so far on equipment, salaries and operational costs, plus training and retention of three pilots, and two maintenance engineers. The engineers also operate as pilots.
“Our chief engineer and chief pilot, David Daniels, has over 10,000 hours of flying experience and is a very, very mature, seasoned aviator, who has also been an instrumental person in navigating South Africa’s law for recreational aircraft. He has been on my payroll for six years now trying to get this operation up and running,” Savadia said.
“We brought back everybody on payroll again three months ago on a full payroll, while also incurring all the costs to bring David back to start the whole operation,” he added.
The JCAA declined to comment on the discussions and delays referred to by Amber.
“We can confirm that we are processing an application from Amber Innovation. I am unable to discuss the specifics of the current status,” said Director General of the JCAA, Nari Williams Singh, in response to the series of questions posed by the Financial Gleaner.
Savadia said that at the last inspection, the JCAA gave Amber a list of four new things to address, however, having complied with the regulator, the company was then advised that the permit would be issued but with limitations – it would be barred from transporting people.
“We complied with those four findings and gave them all the proof. Then they went ahead and said, well, we will give you the permit, but with the limitation that you can’t fly passengers. So, we said, ‘What’s the point of giving us a permit which does not allow us to fly passengers?’ What’s the point?” he repeated.
“I didn’t buy all these planes and have all these pilots to fly by themselves,” he asserted. “And then they changed goalposts again saying that ‘Well, you’re not complying with this; you’re not complying with that’,” Savadia added.
The Airports Authority of Jamaica, the body that would have to give the nod for the use of the country’s airports and aerodromes, said it had no objection to Amber’s service.
Senior Director Commercial development and Planning, Richard Gibbs, told the Financial Gleaner that his findings, after investigating the likely impact of the recreational aircraft in places like Negril, were “generally favourable”, and that the AAJ was amenable to having the service operate.
Pressed for specifics in terms of the findings, Gibbs said there were no drawbacks but that there were initial concerns about noise, and privacy issues, given that the ultralights are low-flying aircraft.
“When that was put to the market in the Negril community, there was a little bit of feedback in terms of some concerns, but to a large extent they were welcoming of the new venture,” Gibbs said.
Amber owns two Sling LSAs purchased at a cost of US$150,000 each, while its last three ultralights were purchased for US$45,000 each. Two of the ultralights are in Jamaica while the rest is overseas awaiting permits to enter the country. The fleet is therefore expected to comprise five ultralights and two LSAs for a total of seven aircraft.
Amber Aviation plans to operate between two prime tourist areas: the Negril airstrip in Westmoreland and the Ian Fleming Airport in St Mary. The service is targeted at vacationing tourists and ‘staycationing’ Jamaicans, Savadia said.
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