Is It Time For The Caribbean To Have An Airline Of Its Own?

by Gary Leopold

The region’s continued cry for more airlift calls for an innovative approach

For what seems like the millionth time, Caribbean tourism officials are bemoaning the lack of airlift to the region and yet again convening a task force to explore the problem.

Where is David Neeleman when you need him? Too busy creating his latest aviation success story, Azul in Brazil, I guess.

Or Richard Branson? Sure, his Virgin Atlantic brings in seats to the region, but he seems more focused on bringing innovation to space travel than to Caribbean aviation.

There must be other smart, entrepreneurial types out there with the vision to figure out this conundrum that never seems to find a good solution.

Everyone knows it’s hard to fill hotels and drive tourism-fueled economies when you can’t get enough capacity coming to your destination. And if you can’t get those seats to be attractively priced, tourists will readily find destinations that can be accessed more affordably.

The current approach seems focused on continuing to subsidize and provide guarantees to the legacy carriers, a “solution” that is now estimated to tally in excess of $45 million annually across the region. But the legacy airlines will always shift their capacity to wherever they can make the most money, and their motives are rightly around generating profits, not necessarily bettering the region.

So what is the Caribbean to do?

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