Grounded airline REDjet isn’t getting any sympathy from chairman of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), Ricky Skerritt, in complaining about the Trinidad and Tobago government subsidizing fuel for the state-owned rival, Caribbean Airlines (CAL).
Skerritt, who is also Minister of Tourism in St Kitts and Nevis, says he sees nothing wrong with it and other governments should follow the lead in providing assistance to airlines in Caribbean skies.
He told members of the media at the 16th annual Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Conference (CHTIC) in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that it was time for all governments in the region to wake up to the need for them to chip in.
“There is nothing wrong with subsidizing, we just don’t like the word. It’s investing in regional airlift. We’ve had people claim the Trinidad government, for instance, is unfair because they’re subsidizing the fuel that goes into Caribbean Airlines. We say we welcome that, we encourage the Trinidad and Tobago government to invest heavily in Caribbean Airlines, we encourage the owners of LIAT and we thank them for having supported LIAT so strongly,” Skerritt told a Press conference.
“But we say to the other Caribbean islands, you have to get together and talk about how we are going to help keep these airlines flying in a more efficient way and with fares that are going to be more affordable for Caribbean people. And if that means Caribbean governments then have to incentivize, invest, subsidize, whatever you call it, we have to do it.”
REDjet, which has not flown since its March 16 suspension of all services, cited unfair competition from the subsidized CAL as a hurdle to providing low-cost travel.
St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who is responsible for air transport in the CARICOM’s quasi-Cabinet and whose government is one of LIAT’s major shareholders, has also complained about Trinidad and Tobago’s subsidies to CAL making the playing field uneven.
However, the CTO chairman insisted that because of the high and rising cost of fuel and other issues related to economies of scale, there was no question that airlift in the region needed support.
Skerritt, the CTO’s secretary general Hugh Riley, and chief executive officer and director general of the Caribbean Hotel Tourism Association (CHTA), Alec Sanguinetti, agreed that REDjet’s ten-month stint demonstrated the high demand for intra-regional travel despite a major dip in recent times.
CTO statistics show that in 2010, there were just over half million intra-regional travellers, a decline of more than a million compared to the 1.6 million who travelled in 2006.
“When REDjet came into the mix, it very clearly demonstrated a very important fact – that Caribbean people were ready to release pent up demand,” Riley said, with Sanguinetti adding that REDjet’s destinations saw an immediate doubling of their Caribbean arrivals.
Skerritt told the WEEKEND NATION that while the CTO was not an advocate for REDjet, it encouraged increased capacity at affordable rates for air travel which the Barbadian-based airline provided.
“What we found REDjet did was raise awareness of a pent up demand for regional travel at the right price and at the right time in the right aircraft,” he said.
“Whether they get back in the air or not, it should at least bring about more discussion, more ideas and more opportunities for growing regional air travel.”
It is against this background that the CTO will be engaging players in regional air travel in an effort to organize a forum to come up with recommendations for building regional airlift.
While welcoming a forum, Sanguinetti lamented that previous decisions on improving regional air travel had not moved past talk.
The CHTA top official referred to the 2007 San Juan Accord at a CTO conference, which outlined a four-point action plan to make travel for airlines less expensive and more competitive in attracting investment.
“The four action points were to be completed by September 2008 and that document is still sitting on a shelf,” he said.
“The word implementation is holding back our tourism industry. It is a word that is absent with regards to everything we agree to be done in the Caribbean. We have been advised to death, we’ve had consultants; if you put all the consultants’ papers or studies that have been done on any one island, it would sink that island. Our problem is that we have not implemented what we ourselves said needs to be done.”
Sanguinetti has therefore called for a follow-up conference with one objective – implementing the San Juan Accord.
