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As smaller airlines in the Caribbean and Central America face fiscal and infrastructure issues that also plague their much larger Latin American counterparts, airlines are using artistic tactics to spice up connectivity and attract a South American clientele increasingly willing to travel to their part of the country. hemisphere.
Speaking at the Latin American and Caribbean Airline Association’s annual Airline Executives Forum, ALTA, in Cancun on Oct. 24, the heads of several small specialty airlines operating in the Caribbean Sea said that while they are not very continent-like, they are still not at the forefront for Latin American vacationers. But opportunities are emerging.
Maximillian Greif, general manager of Tropic Air in Belize, said the country is an “enigma” to many tourists and that Tropic is a “boutique airline that provides a niche service. “
As travelers from North America and Europe begin to notice the English-speaking country of Central America in greater numbers, Greif believes Belize can serve as a “gateway, a direction between the Caribbean and Central America. “
“We’re still necessarily on the map, we’re kind of a mini-Costa Rica, a melting pot that represents Central America and the Caribbean,” he says.
Tropic, founded by Greif’s father, John Greif III, in 1979, now has a fleet of 14 Cessna Caravan jets and a Beech 1900, according to Cirium fleet data. The airline claims to operate two hundred routes throughout the region.
But that said, getting to this country between Mexico and Guatemala takes a lot longer than it should.
“Right now, to get from Belize to the Caribbean, you have to go through Miami,” he says. “This gives us a new opportunity. ” Greif sees the greatest prospects in collaboration with major airlines, in the form of codeshares and interline agreements. Also, the country’s aviation infrastructure “must be adapted to the moment of supply. “
For Nassau-based Bahamasair’s Tracy Cooper, the demographic numbers stand on their own.
“Right now, 85% of [Bahamas] tourists come from North America, but Latin America’s population is even larger than North America’s,” the airline is looking for a way to tap into South Americans’ thirst for new vacations. says the airline’s CEO.
According to Cirium, Bahamasair operates an average of 4 flights between Nassau and Miami, and “almost all Latin American airlines serve Miami. “That’s why Bahamasair is starting to consider interline agreements with those airlines and plans to launch cooperation agreements next year.
Nassau is only 296 km (160 nautical miles) southeast of the American continent. So, when travelers arrive in Miami from far away, it’s a short, easy hop over the western Atlantic.
Trevor Sadler is the chief executive officer of InterCaribbean Airways, a regional airline founded in the Turks and Caicos Islands, an archipelago of less than 50,000 people. He says that after the global Covid-19 pandemic, the airline will build a more connected network. So far, this strategy is working: the airline flies to 27 destinations in 17 countries.
“We’re 100 percent better than anything we did in 2019,” he says. “We’ve found a satisfied environment and we’re doing well. “
However, a common consumer complaint is the maximum charge on short-flight tickets. Sadler attributes this to taxes, fees and other government fees, which can reach up to 50% of each ticket.
For a small fish in a medium-sized pond, it’s hard to compete with other airlines that have economies of scale on their side.
“We’ve got to keep our airfares low and in some places we’re competing with Copa [Airlines], we’re competing with American [Airlines] and we’re competing with the 737s. There’s a limit to what we can do in terms of paying bills.
InterCaribbean operates a fleet of 18 aircraft consisting primarily of Embraer 120, ERJ-145 and ATR turboprops.
“The lower the airfares, the higher the tax percentage, and that sounds terrible,” he says.
In addition to frustrating tourists, those taxes also make it difficult for the island’s citizens to use air service regularly.
“Our islands are 100 to 200 nautical miles apart, maybe a little more, but when you pay that amount of airfare, the final visitor is unlikely to do much more than for imperative reasons,” he said. .
He adds that inter-Caribbean and regional airlines have raised those considerations with their respective governments, hoping to convince them that the reduction in fares and fares constitutes an investment in the aviation sector and that this, in turn, is an investment in the wider economy.
Tropic Air’s Greiff adds: “We can draft all the position papers on education policy and provide the government with a big economic impact on studies, but we have to convince voters. Politicians are listening to their constituents and want to speak out to ask for greater connectivity and lower fares to attract more traffic and more tourist spending.
“It costs $76 to leave Belize, which creates an entry and exit barrier to our ability to grow as a foreign airline,” he adds. “Opportunities translate into votes that translate into political will,” he says.
And those small carriers aren’t alone. Latin American airline executives across the continent are engaged in a perpetual struggle to convince politicians in their respective countries that air transport serves the movement of goods and other people over long distances when it relies on terrestrial networks (buses in the case of hub airlines). sea and air transport. The continental and maritime automobiles of South America, in the case of the Caribbean, are an unrealistic prospect in the 21st century.
Air is rarely a luxury, but a necessity, says InterCaribbean’s Sadler.
“It’s the same for all of us,” said Philippe Bayard, head of Haiti-based Sunrise Airways. “Latin America has 12 countries and the Caribbean has 19 countries. We are on scattered islands in the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. They have shorter distances, lower quality infrastructure, and the same challenges.
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