Dear Editor,
The decision emanating from the recent 18th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the conference of Heads of Government of Caricom for the convening of a special meeting of the Caricom Council on Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Air and Maritime transportation to address a transportation policy and vision for a Regional Airline, is nothing new. Be that as it may, we have a saying ‘better late than never’.
As stated in Stabroek News February 16, 2007 page 8, I am to wonder if the implications of the long-term strategy plans of the region’s national carriers are now more realistic than almost twenty years ago when such a vision was first mooted.
At that time the matter engendered deliberations of a number of high level meetings of Caribbean Aviation technocrats to discuss the subject of the formation of a Multinational Air Carrier (MNAC). The discussions on the subject of the (MNAC) were based in part on a study of the ‘feasibility of establishing a multinational Air Carrier for the Eastern Caribbean and Guyana’ the draft final report of which was completed by Aer Lingus in May, 1989.
I vividly recall the contribution in support of the idea of an MNAC made by Mr Ken Gordon and yours truly at these fora. In my case I had as early as 1981 suggested to the vice president in the then Ministry of Works and Communication the formation of such an entity based on the guidelines set out in an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Circular. As the years passed and I witnessed on the Guyana scene the mostly political decisions which pointed our heads in the forays and excursion of GAC starting from the HS 748s in the Trinidad and Tobago operations followed by Maersk and which continued with the not less than nine valiant attempts at having a stabilized Guyana airline, I had become more convinced that the MNAC within Caricom was the way to go.
Perhaps it is now clear to the financial authorities of Caricom governments that given the parlous situation of the air transport industry which in the not so distant past required the infusion of hundreds of millions of hard currency to shore up these carriers such interventions cannot continue unabated.
Furthermore air transport in both passenger and cargo mode is indispensable to the commerce in the Caricom region and further afield.
Mr Editor I ask, is it that those whose intransigence and secular concerns have mitigated serious consideration for the realization of an MNAC were so embarrassed at the intervening time lag since 1989 that the acronym MNAC has not featured in the report convening the proposed meeting when in fact that is what COTED would in essence be revisiting?
May I stress again as I have previously articulated that to merely discuss the vision of an eventual formation of an MNAC is not enough. Trade and commerce have to be addressed in tandem with aviation in the Caricom region. This time around there should be no complaints about the lack of statistics of salient inputs being obtained from states.
In all of this it is hoped that the considerations of the limitations of the International Airport at Timehri field are duly addressed as a matter of priority and in the interest of future planning and development.
This is very relevant given the reported problems experienced at the Grantley Adams Airport despite the recent extension.
Yours faithfully,
Aubrey Alexander