Comments were made recently by an official that a recommendation will be made to re-examine the cost of intra-regional travel with the hope that taxes can be reduced to help drive down prices.
What is amazing is that to travel within the region, where most flights are on average 35 minutes to one hour between some ports in the southern Caribbean to two to four hours in the northern Caribbean, prices can be as costly as going to most points in North America.
Most carriers will argue that because most of these destinations are short distances separated only by water except the South American destinations of Guyana and Suriname, high maintenance and operational costs make this region an unsustainable one.
On examination, some of these taxes include passenger charges, ticket tax and fuel surcharge while a security charge, among other levies, is then added to the one-way fare.
For most destinations, these combined taxes amount to a whopping 43 per cent of the total cost of the ticket. Only Britain and North America account for more visitors to our shores than the intra-regional market.
There is a need to enhance travel, trade and integration, which has foreign exchange potential as well.
More can be done by Caribbean governments to achieve this.
