Antigua and Barbuda’s Minister of Tourism, Honourable Charles Fernandez says
he is against subsidizing airlines for them to operate regular flights into the
country.
Speaking on the Browne and Browne radio programme over the weekend,
Fernandez says he prefers to spend the money promoting the destination thus
increasing demands for flights to Antigua and Barbuda. This, as the minister
explains that many other competing Caribbean destinations have been willingly
offering subsidises to the airlines for flights.
“One of the things I would say is that a number of our competitors pay a lot of
money to some these airlines to get a flight in. I agree that you have to find a way
to balance it but I am not one who would agree to put money in a flight when you
can take that money and put it to promote the destination. In other words, if you
just bring a flight in as is the case where another island paid US$1 million a year to
bring in a flight weekly and they weren’t getting too many people on the flight. So
soon after the flight was discontinued,” he disclosed.
The tourism minister holds firmly to the view that promoting the destination is a
better option as it will drive demand for additionally seats to which the airlines
would naturally respond.
“For example, this past July there was a big increase in the number of flights that
was driven by the demand. This was despite the complaints about the high costs of
flights into Antigua and Barbuda,” he noted.
According to Fernandez he favours working along with the airlines to help reduce
costs such as joint promotions as well as a waiver of landing and other airport fees
for the first six months of operation.
However, the minister noted that other islands have been quite competitive in their
attempts to lure more airline flights into their country. He said after months of
negotiations with a particular airline, he was told by its executive that another
island made an offer of subsidy that led to that island getting the flight instead of
Antigua and Barbuda.
“This one-up-man ship is not good for us, it’s not good for the industry and I
would wish that we could come together island Caribbean nations and work out a
system that would not have us trying to outdo the other,” he remarked.
