Advent of Delta-Northwest could change Guyanese travel culture
A United States-based Guyanese travel consultant has told Stabroek Business that the challenges confronting the international airline travel industry could have a significant negative impact on the movement of travellers between Guyana and the world’s major capitals, particularly the United States.
“Changing circumstances including fuel-related travel costs and the declining profitability of some routes are impacting on convenient travel between Guyana and North America. The recent challenges faced by Constellation illustrate just how fragile the airline travel regime can be for countries like Guyana,” Fort Lauderdale –based Travel Consultant Hazelyne Bostwick told Stabroek Business recently.
And according to Bostwick the closure of the country’s national airline, the Guyana Airways Corporation (GAC) “appears to be coming back to haunt Guyana” since, she says, “we have not really been able to secure an airline travel service regime that responds effectively to the demands of travellers.
Bostwick, who has commented previously in this newspaper on the closure of GAC told Stabroek Business that she did not accept the argument about the profitability of the airline. “Those who continue to make that argument must explain how other airlines, including charter services, have since been able to ply the same route and how, to this day, other airlines are still seeking to service the same route” . I accept that GAC had its problems but I believe that those problems arose out of management weaknesses. When GAC was in the middle of its crisis we saw no evidence of management of things like target marketing and joint venture fares with other airlines to make it possible for them to bring passengers to a particular point and have GAC bring them the rest of the way to Guyana,” Bostwick said.
Bostwick told Stabroek Business that she believes that the demise of GAC was a function of bad management. “Running an international airline requires considerable management skills and an understanding of the global travel sector. Perhaps we may wish to reflect on whether or not there were sufficient specialist skills within the GAC,” she added.
And according to her GAC was valuable to Guyana for much more than its profitability. “A national flag carrier is an important symbol of a country’s identity, There is no question in my mind that the government should have sought to hold on to GAC. One only need look at the role that Air Jamaica continues to play in promoting the image of Jamaica abroad to understand what GAC could have done for to push our tourism product and to promote Guyana as a whole.
Bostwick told Stabroek Business that while services like Travel Span and Constellation continued to provide mostly satisfactory service to Guyana, the problems that have been affecting Constellation’s service to Guyanese passengers illustrates some of the problems facing charter services. “Charter services depend completely on the complexities that attend the chartering of aircraft from international companies and on many occasions they are confronted with problems associated with the availability of aircraft. She said that the recent incident that led to yet another cancellation of a Constellation flight and left passengers stranded in Guyana was a typical example of the challenges that charters face. “What happened was that American Airlines had to ground several of their aircraft as a result of a problem which forced them to go looking for other aircraft to do sub-service for them. As a result of this development Constella-tion, the smaller service simply took a hit.”
Rising aviation fuel costs could also see the cost of travel escalate beyond the reach of ordinary travellers between major international capitals and countries like Guyana. “While aviation fuel costs have been rising continually airline fares have remained fairly constant. I believe that a point may now have been reached where we will see more of those costs being passed on to passengers. As far as Caribbean Airlines is concerned we now have a built in fuel cost of as much as US$80. On British Airways and other international carriers routes to Africa have built-in fuel costs of as much as $250.”
Bostwick told Stabroek Business that most airlines now charge fees for services that have traditionally been provided at no cost. “:If you pick up the phone and call an airline to enquire about reservations you are likely to get told that you have to pay a small service fee.” She added that although more than 70 per cent of the business secured by airlines is generated through travel agencies, many airlines now no longer pay commissions to travel agents. “It is their way of cutting costs.”
According to Bostwick users of the Delta-Northwest Airlines’ – currently the largest airline in the world – service to Guyana which takes effect from June 1 should anticipate some significant changes in the travel regime. “Delta-Northwest has obviously sat down and looked at the Guyana market and have decided that they can make money in that market.
We need to understand, however, that with the pressures facing the international aviation industry the airline will not sit around and wait for the market to grow. once they find the route unprofitable they will not hesitate to pull their service.”
“I know that reference to GAC raises the question of whether or not the airline was profitable” she says. “ Those who have made that argument, however, have never been able to explain how other services have replaced GAC on the same route and have done so profitably. I believe that the demise of GAC was much more a function of poor management than a situation of profitability.”
Asked about the introduction of a service by Delta-North West from June 1 this year Bostwick said that while she expects that Guyanese will be attracted to what will be the only non-stop service to the United States she expects that the advent of Delta-Northwest could result in what she described as “ a different travel culture.” She said that comparisons between recent fares offered by Delta Northwest and Caribbean Airlines for flights to Guyana indicated that Caribbean Airlines fares were more than US$200 cheaper.
Bostwick said that she was also concerned that Delta may not be bringing to Guyana “the kind of flexibility that caters to the peculiar travel practices of Guyanese.” She explained that regional carriers had grown accustomed to frequent ‘short-notice’ travel arrangements by Guyanese travelling for funerals and other emergencies. “Over the years airlines like BWIA and Caribbean Airlines have facilitated what is a fairly large chunk of the market by offering bereavement fares and other concessions.” She said that while she was not specifically aware of the nature of the discussions she was aware that Delta-Northwest does not customarily afford such flexibilities.
“One of the difficulties with the introduction of new airlines, particularly ones that have no understanding of the travel culture of the route, is that they simply make no provision for the peculiarities of that route. One of the things that concern me, for example, is that with effect from May 1 Delta will be charging an additional US$25 for the second checked bag.
It would be interesting to see how Guyanese will react to having to pay for that second bag,” Bostwick said.
