History
Air Turks & Caicos began in 1991 as InterIsland Airways Charter Service. In 2003 the Turks and Caicos Government started a push toward regional and international development and it seemed that 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. Still the only scheduled airline serving all the Outer Islands today, Air Turks & Caicos also serves several key international destinations, with daily scheduled flights to multiple cities in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Bahamas.
Future expansion plans calls for further development of international routes, including service to St. Maarten and Puerto Rico in order to offer interline connections throughout the Caribbean, Europe and South America. Fleet expansion continues according to the needs of the routes as they are added. Currently the airline operates two 30 passenger Embraer 120 Brasilias with lavatories, galleys and flight attendant service, two 19 seat Twin Otters, one 9 passenger Britten Norman Islander and a CitationJet for executive charters. One each additional Twin Otter and Brasilia are on order. Air Turks & Caicos currently operates 50 domestic and international flights on a daily basis.
Chairman Lyndon Gardiner is still deeply involved with the airline daily management, pushing the organization toward his goal of providing a National Flag Carrier that truly serves the unique needs of the country and the region.
Born on North Caicos in 1967, the 4th of six children, Lyndon Gardiner learned from his maternal grandfather, a fisherman by trade and a legislator for most of his life, that goal achievement requires unwavering determination and dedication. After spending the first ten years of his business career in finance,
he decided to follow the example of his two older brothers and went to Ft. Lauderdale to attend flight school. He 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. By 2004, having added several more companies to his portfolio, he had gained widespread recognition for his efforts and was named Businessman of the Year.
