Back in 1982, twin engine jets were not widely used on long predominantly over-water flights. Indeed, from the east coast of the United States, only one airline operated 737 flights to destinations in the Caribbean over 1000 miles away. Identify that airline, the U.S. gateway airport from which its 737 flights departed and the two Caribbean destinations so served.
HINT: It's a foreign airline
Per Herb687: Cayman Airways was the other Caribbean 737 operator of which I was thinking. So, how about Cayman Airways on JFK-GCM and JFK-MBJ?
Per jrl767: I don’t think Cayman was serving the NYC area that early; I also have to believe that Miami (MIA) was the gateway, based on the sheer number of Caribbean and Central/South American carriers operating there. Given the 1000-mile constraint, Central American carriers probably wouldn’t be in the mix, and I can’t think of any other Caribbean-based 737 operators ... so I’m thinking that the airline in question is from a small country in northeastern South America, and the flight continued to the capital city with a stop in either Port of Spain (POS) or Barbados (BGI) depending on the day of the week. First guess is Surinam Airways to Paramaribo (PBM)
.....
Per Toshbaf: Air France, Miami, Pointe-à-Pitre and Fort-de-France
Way to answer en masse, gang!
Herb, I'm pretty sure the only jet Cayman was operating in early 1982 was the BAC-111-531. And I'm pretty sure its only US gateways were IAH and MIA. I logged my first flights with KX in April of '82 aboard VR-CAB roundtrip between IAH and GCM.
J, Suriname Airways was still running the DC-8-60 series into MIA back in 1982. And
Tosh, a good guess buddy, but Air France was still flying the 727-200 on its Caribbean operations back in 1982.
jrl767 is the closest here in surmising that the airline in question was indeed from a small South American nation.
I look forward to your continued efforts! ^^^