The need for a new carrier was obvious. The question was, who had the entrepreneurial flair and the knowledge of flying to set up a Caribbean airline from scratch?

The answer soon came, as anxiety grew both in the Caribbean and in London about keeping contact open between the British-governed islands. Trinidad and Tobago’s new governor Sir Hubert Young was keenly interested in a Caribbean air service: his wife Lady Young, was an amateur flyer herself, and a member of the Light Aeroplane Club which was established at Piarco in 1938. As the search began for a suitable Caribbean Operator, her thoughts turned to a New Zealand-born Britisher, Lowell Yerex, a man who had already made a remarkable reputation for himself not too far away.