The growth and development of any integration movement anywhere is dependent on many factors, but one of the most important is communication in its widest sense.
Whether by land, by air, by sea, or – in our modern era – by Internet, telephonic and other communications, the people of the region have to be in touch with each other so the economic, social and other aspects of integration can work to the better enhancement of the integration objectives.
The introduction of REDjet airline may not have been undertaken specially to serve these objectives. Businessmen often espy an economic opportunity and seek to exploit it for the benefit of themselves and their shareholders; but there is no gainsaying the fillip to our integration process which a successful, efficient and safe, low-cost airline can achieve.
Complaints about the current service providers have been made from time to time by users of those other airline services, and the chorus of applause which has greeted REDjet may be nothing more than a reflection of the anticipated benefits which increased competition may bring to the aviation industry in these skies.
Yet, airline operations anywhere are not an easy business, and many small regional airlines have taken off, flown for a while and then crumbled under the weight of one difficulty or another, having in the meantime brought some form of increased competition to the regional airline business.
Competition is usually welcomed by economists and consumers on the basis that it provides for more efficiency in the marketplace, leads to cheaper prices and also the most telling and potent form of regulation because consumers can talk with their feet by choosing the competition when dissatisfied, rather than being held hostage.
But it seems that consumers are not yet to be able to have greater choice, since the regulatory approval process has been completed in some jurisdictions and not in others.
Last week, Guyana’s Minister of Tourism Manniran Prashad welcomed the official launch in Georgetown of REDjet, while making the point that he was eager to have greater competition since he felt it would redound to the benefit of the travelling public. He also hoped that the “little irritants being experienced in the other jurisdictions” would be solved very soon.
We believe that the other airlines operating in the region can compete with any newcomers. They have long worked and operated in this market, and if the introduction of REDjet causes them to be even more efficient, then the consumers gain and the regional effort is enhanced if more people can move between the islands in pursuance of and stimulating the kind of economic activity that will enhance regional unity.
It is clear the approval process is not yet complete in Jamaica and Trinidad, and that what the REDjet’s development officer Mr Robbie Burns referred to as “political and regulatory actions” in these two islands have prevented the early take-off of flights to these capitals from Barbados.
Once again decisions on matters of a regional nature are dependent on the consent of individual islands. While we do not challenge the right of each island to regulate its own laws, some investors are likely to be put off by the necessity of going to each capital for approval to engage in what is a regional enterprise.
We believe that whatever solution is reached will be one that takes into account the legitimate concerns of all the interested airline operations. But the major lesson of this current situation must be that greater attention needs to be given to streamlining the approvals of regional entities, so that we do not lose much needed investment which can benefit the region.
Some bureaucratic delays are necessary, because it is better to be safe than sorry. Legitimate investment needs to be efficiently scrutinized, but once all regulatory tests are satisfied, then an expeditious go-ahead should follow.
