Air transportation that links the Caribbean effectively has failed to get off the ground for decades.

In many instances, it is quicker to get to China than it is to fly to another Caribbean island.

Speaking at the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) Annual News Conference, held in Bridgetown, Barbados earlier this week, CDB President Dr Gene Leon again focused on the critical role air transportation has to play in binding the Caribbean.

“If connectivity is the lifeblood of the development of modern economies, then transportation is a critical valve. Yet intra-regional transport declined by as much as 50 per cent between 2008 and 2018,” said the CDB boss.

Leon went on to add that this is a crisis particularly in the Eastern Caribbean where the demise of LIAT in 2020 meant the loss of airlift from an average of 500 weekly flights in 2019 to 50 flights in 2022.

“The CDB views dependable and cost effective air transportation services as essential for the transformation of several of the region’s economies. Consequently, to safeguard the region’s future, governments need to take decisive and integrated action to reform the air transportation operating environment.

These measures should include:

• Rationalising the regulatory environment and addressing factors that contribute to the high cost of travel as well as elements that hinder the seamless movement of people within the region.
• Promoting cooperation among regional airlines to reduce wasteful competition and improve inter-airline connectivity.
• Forging a critical mass of collective will at the policy level.

The way Leon sees it, the Caribbean air transportation issue has to be seen in its entirety of an ecosystem. This has to include the assets that will be required. Then there is the financing of those assets. The legal framework and the environment within which those will be deployed. Collaboration, connectivity, the networking to make it work. The demand for the services needs to be adequate and appropriate. The costing and management to be done so that it is operating efficiently.

Then one needs to have the political arrangements in place that says we are all benefiting from this. Networks cannot exist in segments, they have to exist in their entirety. Connectivity of a network becomes the global public good, the value of any air transportation.

Now obviously they will not all be as economic in every segment so the solution found must be able to bridge the fact that some form of pricing is needed to cover the entire needs of the region.

“What we are looking at is how can we provide a framework? How can we provide guidance on what the region needs to make it work? We believe it is essential that the region cannot go forward without solving the transportation problem that we have now,” said Leon.