Bahamas Bucks Air Space Plan
Although ministers of tourism in the Caribbean region have endorsed an agreement for the creation of a single Caribbean air space, according to Bahamas Minister of Tourism and Aviation Neko Grant this country does not adopt such an arrangement. Although ministers of tourism in the Caribbean region have endorsed an agreement for the creation of a single Caribbean air space, according to Bahamas Minister of Tourism and Aviation Neko Grant this country does not adopt such an arrangement. Last week, ministers with responsibility for Tourism and International Transport – who are members of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) – met in San Juan, Puerto Rico to discuss proposals for restructuring the regional air transport sector. They signed the San Juan Accord, a memorandum on the regional air transport sector identifying the need for a single airspace and a common civil aviation regime. The plan is to create a single regional air space within sub-regional groupings such as CARICOM, of which the Bahamas is a member, by September 30, 2008, and extend this air space to the wider Caribbean, as feasible. Officials see the document as a way to improve the vibrancy of the tourism product. Although the memorandum is being hailed as one of the most significant achievements in this area for a very long time, Minister Grant suggested that The Bahamas is happy with the way things are. According to Mr. Grant, The Bahamas presently operates in an open air space and welcomes all carriers as long as they are reputable and meet international airline standards. In regards to the vibrancy of the Bahamas tourism product, the minister said that he sees no challenges. "We don’t do not have the same challenges that other countries in the Caribbean have in regards to opens air space, and there are many Bahamian airlines that fly inter island," Minister Grant told The Bahama Journal yesterday. His statement appeared to put him at odds with remarks made by Vincent Vanderpool Wallace, the secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization and former director general of the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism. Mr. Vanderpool Wallace drove home the relevance of creating a single airspace during the wrap-up report at the close of the (CTO) San Juan meeting. He suggested that the accord was a key move in enhancing the tourism product in the Caribbean region. "[It] was this whole idea of one Caribbean air space because for a long period of time we kept talking about open skies but the notion of having a single Caribbean airspace is really what we are talking about and that obviously would be facilitated enormously by having a common civil aviation regime," he said. "The next part of that - which is so critical to all of the development of the Caribbean - is having many more efficient hubs into some key areas located in the Caribbean because, frankly, if we begin to look at the Caribbean area as a single space with these hubs to feed a number of individual destinations instead of continuing to look at the Caribbean as our individual destination or country airspace, we find that it becomes enormously more efficient." He said such a move would auger quite well for the future of Caribbean tourism. The San Juan Accord calls for harmonizing air safety and navigation procedures in the region. It aims to improve the management of international and intra-regional air services in order to maintain an improve the vibrancy and competitiveness of the region’s tourism sector while promoting greater business, social and institutional integration in the Caribbean. A recent report on Caribbean air transport services had recommended that governments in the region consider negotiating "open skies" agreements with the United States, United Kingdom and other relevant, developed countries. However, researchers who compiled the 41-page report that was released by the CTO acknowledged that The Bahamas, along with Trinidad and Tobago, and Barbados did not want to negotiate such an arrangement any time in the near future.
October 30, 2007
|
