Regional Travel To Become Cheaper! (Don’t Hold Your Breath!)

CBC carried a story with the headline with regard to a recent meeting between regional ministers of Tourism and Civil Aviation. Spokesman Alan Chastenet (St. Lucia) gave the following statement.

 ”We will be paying attention to a structure in which regional carriers can all collaborate with each other, and given the size and population of the region, make our region more affordable by jointly agreeing to streamline international regulations which do not apply to our area but only make access to international airlift more expensive and complicated,”

Not to be left out BArbados’ Noel Lynch chimed in….

“We have been able to make significant headway on issues and set a timetable to achieve functional cooperation between airlines, determining the benchmarks which allow other regions with similar development profiles to achieve the success that continues to elude us, and resolving issues which retard our growth such as taxation, costs, over regulation, and the concept not only of open skies but a common airspace,”

Now we on the margin have heard promises many times on this matter. It would appear from the press statements  that they seem to have agreed to agreee, but from our reading of the article it doesn’t look like if there has been much substantial progress yet.

So we will remain hopeful, but we won’t get our hopes up.

Marginal