Lyndon Gardiner: Building an Airline and Giving Back to the Community

By Jenique Belgrave

One may believe a man who built a company that started with a lone four-seater aircraft providing an island-hopping service to a few islands, into an internationally recognised airline over the span of three decades has little to no time to dedicate to those in need.

However, chief executive officer and founder of interCaribbean Airways, Lyndon Gardiner, is not only focused on building the region’s largest carrier but on helping people in his community.

Asked why he is driven to help, the philanthropist spoke about his childhood and being raised as a “barefoot boy” in a very poor, single-mother home in the Turks and Caicos Islands.

“My mother always told me that challenges will always come in life but that people need to find a way to overcome them,” he recalled in a recent chat with Barbados TODAY.

Gardiner did just that and made a decision that he would help others face and overcome their struggles as well.

He and his airline are dedicated to providing transportation to allow children in the Caribbean with illnesses and medical conditions to get much-needed advanced paediatric care. Gardiner said those trips, which are often too much of a financial burden for families, are provided by interCaribbean at no charge.

Working in partnership with the World Paediatric Project, which is an international non-profit organisation that bridges the gap created by a lack of access to advanced paediatric healthcare in the world, the effort has allowed scores of children to receive paediatric surgical and diagnostic care in orthopaedics, cardiology, urology, neurosurgery, plastic surgery, ophthalmology and neonatal training programmes.

The partnership is currently focused on Latin America and the Caribbean.

As a regional transportation sponsor for the project since 2020, interCaribbean carries not only patients but also medical practitioners throughout the region.

Gardiner’s focus on giving back does not end there, however, as he acknowledged his involvement in several ventures, especially those that involve youth and development.

He is involved in yet another undertaking that will benefit Caribbean people, particularly those in the aviation industry.

“We’re looking at rolling out an interCaribbean scholarship next year, 2024, to provide for training in aviation, and we’re looking to expand that as the years roll by, where it’s not only a pilot or a mechanic or a flight attendant but in other various and different disciplines in aviation including dispatchers, accountants, planners, and a number of other areas,” Gardiner said, adding that this venture will be done in collaboration with the University of the West Indies and community colleges.

Gardiner also noted that his airline, which now boasts over 26 planes, including several 72-seater jets, is critical to providing interconnectivity during times of natural disasters, especially hurricanes.

“We also are a partner for disaster management, and whenever there’s a natural disaster, we look at moving people from one island to another island for support. I’m just thinking about the last hurricane where Dominica was having challenges with security up in the east. We ended up moving a number of people from as far as Jamaica to support them until they were able to get most of the island connected and reorganised, and those are the things that we do,” he said.

The airline executive stressed that it was critical to give back to those who ensure the interCaribbean remains in the skies.

“We believe that it’s incumbent on us to give back as much as possible to the communities that support us, and we’re doing it,” he declared.

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