The Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) on Tuesday said it is seeking a meeting with regional leaders to discuss the possibility of reducing airfares to destinations throughout the Caribbean.
In recent times, Guyana has protested the high fares charged by the airline, stating that its pricing system is “unfair”.
The Guyana government has maintained that CAL’s fares for flights between Trinidad and Guyana are equivalent to that for flights from Trinidad to the United States. As such, the government has since accelerated its move to consider operating its own airline out of Guyana, while pursuing talks with foreign air carriers.
When contacted for a comment on CAL’s claim that taxes and other fees are the reason for the high fares, Tourism, Industry and Commerce Minister Manniram Prashad had refuted this.
He said that despite numerous meetings with officials of the airline, the issue of high taxation and fees was never raised until now. He reiterated that Caribbean Airlines overcharges the Guyanese travellers; and now, with government’s move towards other options, CAL recognises the need to take action.
This newspaper understands that the airlines operating out of Guyana have to pay a 15 per cent tax on each ticket and at least three other fees, but these are charged to the passengers. In other Caribbean destinations, there are other fees charged.
Meanwhile, CAL’s Chief Executive Officer, Ian Brunton, speaking on local radio in Trinidad, said that government taxes account for as much as 60 per cent of a ticket paid by passengers on some routes.
“At the same time, the airlines have a responsibility to try and keep their fares down to the absolute minimum; and that’s what we are trying. We are doing our best to keep the fares down,” he said.
“When you have high taxes on these short-range flights, you find the proportion of the taxes is larger than the ticket cost; and what we would like to see is a forum… which speaks to the governments and try to have some kind of concession, particularly for people of the region to move about without having these large burdens, or taxes, or fees.
It is important for us to have that dialogue,” he said, noting that airlines face the possibility of going out of business if they put their prices “too low”.
“… to fly these airplanes is a costly business, and we obviously have to pay our way. If we try to bring the fares too low down, we will be going back to our governments for support; and we don’t want to go back, particularly the Trinidad and Tobago government, for financial support.
“So we have to be able to charge economic fares, and there are certain fare levels that we can’t drop below. As I said, we have to be able to pay our way,” he added.
Earlier this year, the Jamaica government and the management of CAL signed an agreement regarding the sale of the cash- strapped Air Jamaica to the Trinidad and Tobago- based company.
Last week, the Jamaica government said it had given approval for the operations of Air Jamaica Limited/Caribbean Airlines Limited (CAL) to be exempted from government procurement procedures.
Information Minister Daryl Vaz said that the exemption covers the transition period, until CAL takes over ownership of the national airline, and is in keeping with the Public Sector Procurement Regulations (2008).
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