Can the Caribbean sustain an interregional airline?

03.AUG.07

Editor: Over the last few years airlines operating out of the Caribbean region have had to struggle to stay airborne. We have seen the likes of Air Jamaica and BWIA having to undergo serious restructuring and downsizing to stay in the air. The two aforementioned airlines operated primarily as links to international destinations.{{more}}

The same problems that faced the international carriers have forced the interregional carriers such as LIAT and Caribbean Star to take a serious look at how they do business.

As we go forward with the current restructuring of LIAT I ask the question: Can the region sustain an interregional airline?

Successive regional governments have poured money into LIAT without the general public seeing any real improvement in the service. In fact as LIAT goes through its current restructuring process, the service has deteriorated. The experience of many of the travels to SVG for the recent Carnival celebrations bears this out fully.

Caribbean Star has virtually closed up shop and its main financier Texan billionaire Allan Stanford is virtually giving away the assets of the airline to LIAT.

In order to sustain itself LIAT needs to do several things.

1. It must reduce the number of employees that it currently has.

2. It must cut back on the number of flights.

3. It must increase fares.

A reduction in the number of employees will mean a decline in the level of services to the public. Service is already poor. For political reasons regional governments are not inclined to go for a reduction in staff.

LIAT will not be allowed to reduce the number of flights. Countries like SVG, whose main link to the outside world, is LIAT, will shun any idea of a reduction in service to that country.

LIAT has already increased its fares, so much so that it is becoming unaffordable to the ordinary people.

The truth be told, not enough people in the region fly on a daily basis to sustain an airline at an affordable cost. Most of the tourists to the region do not use the interregional carriers. Tourists prefer to be taken directly to their destinations. The only ones who can sustain a regional carrier are the people of the region.

We do need an interregional airline. However we must come to the realization that we will have to bear the cost of that airline. We being the regional governments and those who travel within the region.

Oswald Sutherland