PATHWAYS TO IMPROVING INTRA REGIONAL TRANSPORT

To enhance air travel in the Caribbean, more collaboration between regional governments and their commercial sectors is required.

This word comes from Isaac Solomon, acting president of the Caribbean Development Bank, who spoke during Thursday’s “Pathways to Improving Intra-Regional Air Transport Connectivity in the Caribbean – Industry Perspective” panel discussion, held at the Global Supply Chain Forum at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
Solomon said that governments along with the private sector players must meet on common ground to address the lingering issues associated with travel in the regional, particularly in the area of taxation.

He said: “The way governments approach the international carriers and the regional carriers is totally different. I think there is scope for us to relook how we treat all players within the space. If we are able to do that, we can find less controversial means of addressing the tax issue. Government needs to look at the private sector differently; if it contributes over 85 per cent of growth in national income, the private sector is very critical to our livelihood and development.”

Dona Regis-Prosper, CTO secretary-general and chief executive, agreed with Solomon, stating: “The Caribbean as a whole will recover by over 13 per cent compared to 2019, so that is significant growth in terms of international arrivals. Intra-regional movement is a different story, unfortunately. There are many things that we need to tackle and we cannot do it alone, or we can’t do it without an all-sector approach. We have to be bold as we move forward in tackling the elephants in the room; that could include taxation, passenger services and demand creation price points.”

“When we break down the cost of an airline ticket, we see taxes added on to that. It’s a catch-22 for us; the taxes are to fund the airports, to meet international requirements, customer demands or airline requirements.”