EDITORIAL: To solve the case of regional travel…

Whenever there is a conversation about better facilitating travel within the Caribbean, the first inclination of those engaged in that conversation is to focus on LIAT. This cash-strapped regional air carrier is placed front and centre, with the talk being about what they think is wrong with that company and how it can be fixed. Tempers often flare and tensions rise during these discussions and at the end of the day, we still have no solutions to the problems that face intra-regional travel. 

 

No one can deny that LIAT has had and continues to face serious issues. Over the years there has been public outcry about poor customer service, delayed and cancelled flights, lost luggage and the most nagging issue, the overall high cost of airfares to its various destinations, due to high fuel costs and heavy taxes imposed by regional governments. But, it has been argued that if each and every one of the CARICOM countries serviced by the air carrier, provided it with some kind of support, its fortunes could actually improve. 

 

Instead, what we have seen over the years is several governments being openly critical about the management of the airline, while a handful, Barbados included, have been willing to assist the Antigua-based company in becoming the best that it can be. Three years ago the principals of the airline maintained that the air carrier could not continue servicing unprofitable routes, and if the countries to which the airline flies do not give some form of support, they could be removed from the list of destinations serviced. They did not follow through on this threat then, but perhaps they should now, so as to show such countries just how much the carrier contributes to their respective economies.

 

Take Grenada for example, just this week officials from the Grenada Tourism Authority were here in Barbados trying to woo Barbadians to their shores. But without LIAT, their efforts would be in vain. For Grenada, like Barbados and perhaps most Caribbean countries, this region is the third largest source market for tourists; can we truly afford to lose our greatest means of travel within the region, knowing full well that no other has shown an interest in flying those short routes? No we cannot!

 

So going forward, we may have to move beyond trying to make the carrier profitable and manage it as a public good. We say that because not only is it important to our economies, but it has a major role to play in regional integration. If we intended to push for the full movement of Caribbean nationals, then facilitating that movement, smooth and effortlessly, must become a priority. We have seen what LIAT can do and its potential, so rather than reinventing the wheel, why not work collaboratively to get the model that is currently in place right?

 

But that is not to say there is not room for others to get involved, maybe not in terms of air travel, as we all remember the demise of Caribbean Star and REDjet, but ferries are possible. So the recent news that a passenger ferry service to link some islands is being set up in Barbados and would likely start operations by year end, and that a company in Dominica was intending to do the same there, is welcomed. Such a mode of transport was being toyed with for many years now, and did work in by-gone years and may very well be a viable and cheaper travel option for the Caribbean, especially if these vessels utilise alternative energy sources to power them, rather than traditional fossil fuels.