THE?DELAY or confusion surrounding the commencement of REDjet operations between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago and between Barbados and Jamaica would be farcical if it was not so serious.
Once again, an initiative which would immeasurably assist the regional effort to become integrated seems likely to fall flat on its face at the hands of the kind of decision-making that reeks mostly of politics and has very little to do with the way one expects business to be conducted.
The regional airlines LIAT and Caribbean Airlines have long flown up and down the region, sometimes to the satisfaction of regional travellers, but always at prices which were as high as the cost of a flight to mainland United States.
The price of fuel and the normal costs of operating an airline were given as the foundational causes of these fares, even if nothing could excuse the traditional tardiness of flights and cancellations at short notice and other irritants such as the passenger arriving in a strange country while his luggage was left languishing in another island.
A quasi monopoly seemed to rule the skies and a kind of take-it-or-leave-it reality informed the flight plans of many a traveller or businessman hoping to do regional business. Long before REDjet came to the Barbadian and Guyanese runways, then Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur spoke of the need for increased and more rapid communication between these islands.
The late Errol Barrow many years ago, in his second stint as Prime Minister, lamented the fact that while the ordinary people in the region managed to communicate with each other, officialdom of one kind or another was not as accommodating to the regional effort, because of one or more political or bureaucratic hurdles over which nobody wanted to jump.
REDjet is a classic example of what we must not do in the region. We invite and persuade investors from outside to come into our region and invest their money. Some may come with the assistance of guaranteed tax breaks, but they all expect that decisions affecting their businesses will be made within a reasonable time.
It would seem that the Guyanese [and Barbadian] authorities have made decisions concerning REDjet with the kind of efficiency and speed required of modern government; but, seemingly, Trinidad and Jamaica cannot do so or have not yet been able to do so.
We are all in this regional effort together and if REDjet proposes to fly the regional routes at airfares more accommodating to the pockets of our people, then every effort should be made to properly evaluate all political, regulatory and safety aspects of the proposed operation and let the airline get its wings once all hurdles are cleared, as it were, for take-off.
We have no doubt that competition is good for the industry. Equally, we have no doubt that LIAT and Caribbean Airlines are equal to the task of facing up to the competition. In fact, they have already begun to flex their wings, so to speak, by reducing prices to favourably compare with REDjet fares.
Now that at long last, REDjet has been given its Air Operating Certificate from the authorities in Trinidad and Tobago and in Jamaica, we call upon these two governments to deal expeditiously with what are being called the “political and regulatory” hurdles that must now be overcome.
Time is money, and it would be a major tragedy for regional development and more so for the people of this region if REDjet were forced to fly away.
The airline has already been forced to lay off cabin staff, but the wise exercise of political will can overcome any political hurdles.