BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Guadeloupe-based airline, Air Antilles, will from April 1, begin a daily schedule between Barbados and Dominica, St. Lucia, Martinique, and Pointe-à-Pitre with tourism officials here saying the initiative will significantly boost inter-regional travel.
“Inter-regional travel is essential to us at the Barbados Tourism Marketing Inc. (BTMI). As part of our post-COVID recovery strategy, it was time to look at the best way to increase activity between Barbados and the Caribbean,” said BTMI chairman Shelly Williams.
“Currently, Air Antilles offers a service to Barbados of three to four flights weekly. With a 133 percent increase in seats, we anticipate incremental economic earnings of nine million dollars (One Barbados dollar=US$0.50 cents) annually,” she added.
Tourism officials say Air Antilles airline seats will increase from 15,000 to 35,000 annually, and the estimated economic impact is derived from increased visitors, daily spending, and travel fees. They said the partnership would also allow for extended airlift directly to the French Caribbean through Corsair Airline, making connections to Barbados.
“A high-profile marketing campaign will supplement this capacity growth by Air Antilles as well as in-market marketing and promotional activities from the BTMI to keep Barbados top-of-mind and ensure that we fill these additional seats,” Williams said, noting that in addition to increased capacity, the expansion of Air Antilles service will boost Barbados’ connections into non-traditional visitor source markets as far as Europe.
“We are especially pleased to deepen relations with the French Caribbean. This revamped service fits into our overall airlift strategy of increasing connectivity to position Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) as a true hub of the Caribbean.
“The Pointe-à-Pitre and Fort de France routes connect us directly with France through Corsair. France is a key market for us as we expand and diversify the places where we do business. We thank Air Antilles for their continued confidence in the destination and look forward to working closely with them,” Williams said.
Air Antilles founder and owner Eric Koury said he looks forward to doing more business with Barbados.
“Barbados continues to perform well for us as a destination and has been a strong partner over the past six years. As we grow and expand our footprint throughout the Caribbean, we are eager to increase business with Barbados and look forward to making this venture successful.
“We are excited with this partnership commitment for Barbados, for a minimum of one year in the first instance, and are pleased to announce that flights have already been loaded for sale,” he said.
The French airline has been flying to Barbados since February 2017.
Last weekend, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders ended their 44th regular summit in the Bahamas, 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.
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.
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