NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders ended their 44th regular summit here on Friday, nowhere closer to solving the woes experienced by regional travelers following the collapse of the intra-regional airline, LIAT, in 2020.
“It is an ongoing discussion we have mandated the (Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to explore and to examine the current challenge that we have and to come up with some recommendations on how we can overcome the travel issue of intra-regional travel,” Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit told reporters at the end of the summit news conference.
The Antigua-based LIAT (1974) Limited entered into administration in July 2020 following increased debt and the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
The airline is owned by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, St Vincent, and the Grenadines. A downsized version of the carrier has been operating a reduced schedule with a limited workforce since November 2020.
Before entering into administration, the airline had been servicing several regional destinations, has scaled down its operations, and is now servicing Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, San Juan Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and St. Maarten.
Skerrit told reporters the matter had been discussed during the summit, and the leaders had received an updated report from the CDB.
“Amongst ourselves, we have discussed several actions we can take immediately to help resolve our current challenge.
“The reality is we all miss LIAT in the Caribbean, an airline that was chastised by so many of us, but now we understand and appreciate the important public good LIAT espoused for so many decades, and so we are looking at what kind of construct we can bring to play recognizing that there are existing companies that are servicing our islands,” he added.
Skerrit said the Caribbean countries are looking “at how we can work with those existing entities to seek to alleviate the current challenges.”
In his address to the opening ceremony of the summit on Wednesday, newly elected St. Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew said the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) “stands at a crossroads” with a myriad of challenges, including inadequate transportation within the region.
Drew said it is difficult for the Caribbean countries to extoll the virtues of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that facilities the free movement of goods, services, persons, capital, and technology “without addressing the proverbial “elephant in the room” – intra regional transport.
“The reality is that it is too difficult and too costly for the region’s people to move and enjoy the benefits of true integration within the single space created for them to do so at optimal levels.”
He said coming to this meeting in the Bahamas is an example of a disconnect between the countries. He noted that several delegations had to transit through Miami and perhaps overnight there before flying to a sister CARICOM-member destination.
“It should take less than 24 hours to move from country to country within our region. Compared to developed countries with highly developed transport means and modalities, the Caribbean remains at a disadvantage in realizing the benefits of the CSME that the framers of the CARICOM Treaty envisaged,” he added.
At their last summit in Suriname in July previous year, regional leaders agreed on a new modern Multilateral Air Services Agreement (MASA) that will allow for a new framework within which air transportation will operate.
St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said then that that country, particularly those in the Eastern Caribbean, and even Trinidad and Tobago, were severely affected by the loss of thousands of seats “because LIAT, as it was, is no longer before us.”
Media reports last week noted that representatives of regional countries who met in St. Lucia failed in their latest attempt to revive the airline.
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