In a press release, Tropic Air announced today, Tuesday, December 23, 2014, the arrival and addition into scheduled service of a brand new Cessna Grand Caravan 208B-EX turbo prop aircraft (registration number V3-HHV).
“This latest addition to the fleet arrived over the weekend after a delivery flight from the Cessna production facility in Wichita, Kansas,” stated the press release. “It represents a BZ$5.2 million investment for the company, and our confidence in the strength of the Belize tourism product.”
Tropic Air is the first and only airline to fly this aircraft commercially in Belize. The Caravan EX features a more powerful engine, faster cruise speed, air conditioning, new LED lighting and the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit advanced avionics suite with radar. Tropic Air also adds that it also represents the latest in passenger comfort for its customers.
This addition brings the number of Caravans in Tropic’s fleet to ten, and overall number of aircraft to 15. In order to ensure that it is immediately available to support the high season the aircraft will feature a eurowhite livery until it gets its full Tropic Air colors in April.
Tropic operated over 50,000 flights last year, serving more than 300,000 passengers. Tropic operates scheduled flights to 16 destinations in Belize, Honduras, Mexico and Guatemala. Tropic has over 290 employees, Tropic launched flights to its newest destination, Merida, Mexico in March of this year.
Photos Attached: 1) New Cessna Caravan EX in front of construction site pf Tropic’s new maintenance facility in San Pedro. 2) The Caravan’s cockpit 3) The next generation LED navigation lighting.
