Germany’s second largest airline has expressed an interest in flying into St Vincent and the Grenadines, once the international airport is completed.{{more}}

While speaking at a press conference yesterday, Glen Beache, chief executive officer of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Tourism Authority (SVGTA) announced that his organization had been contacted by Air Berlin.

“As many of you know, we have been in charge of the negotiations with the airlines for the opening of Argyle international,” Beache said.

“It’s interesting; Air Berlin got in touch with us, which is an airline that we’ve never spoken to before, but they got in touch with us, because they heard about what we were doing and they seem to have an interest in actually looking at St Vincent and the Grenadines as one of the destinations that they would like to improve their service into the Caribbean, which is huge for us”.

The CEO observed that Germany offers one of the bigger tourism markets to the Caribbean and currently, its airline only operates out of one country in the Caribbean: Cuba.

“We’ve actually been out of Germany for a while now, because of the lack of air service, obviously from Germany into St Vincent and the Grenadines. The only destination that Air Berlin flies into right now is Cuba. So, if we’re the second one and the first English speaking [country in the] Caribbean, it would bode well to St Vincent and the Grenadines if we can get them in here and also it would mean that we would have to find ourselves back in Germany, marketing St Vincent and the Grenadines,” he explained.

In October 2012, Beache stated that the SVGTA would soon be able to release names of airlines that would travel to St Vincent, once the international airport was completed.

Earlier this year, he said that negotiations with airlines to operate in St Vincent were still ongoing.

At yesterday’s press conference, Beache also stated that an offer has been made to some of the airlines they have been in contact with, to visit the country before Christmas.

“By end of week, we should know which ones would actually be coming to us before Christmas,” he said.

Airlines that do not visit within this time are expected to journey to St Vincent and the Grenadines between January and February, 2014.

Air Berlin is Germany’s second largest airline, after Lufthansa, and Europe’s seventh largest airline in terms of passengers carried.(BK)