On Reducing The New Airport Burden

Details

Letter to Editor

Monday, 04 June 2012 02:30

By Rosen Bowery

Dear Editor. As a proud national of Antigua & Barbuda, and one who will be obliged to pay the charges associated with the new Airport Administration Charge Act 2012 (that was debated by the House of Representatives on May 30, 2012), I am duty bound to register my displeasure.

The debate did not address an area that is of great concern to me and which, I think, if given due consideration, could reduce the burden of the increased amount that all Antiguans will have to pay to travel.
 
I wish to state from the onset that the Government must indeed take measures to ensure that the loan for a new airport terminal can be serviced and it is not uncommon for the users of the airport to be burdened with the cost.
 
My concern with the new act is that it has targeted originating and terminating passengers only, when a very high percentage of persons who use the airport are persons who are passing through Antigua, transferring from one aircraft/airline to another.

This category of passengers (transfer passengers) utilise the airport facilities, including the security screening checkpoints and the passenger departure lounge etc, but they are not considered in the new act for a contribution towards the cost of building the new terminal.
 
Apart from the fact that transferring passengers generally remain in the departure lounge and utilise the airport facilities longer than originating passengers, their baggage will also have to go through a scanning process in order for the airport to meet the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) security standards.

Therefore, costly baggage conveyors and X-ray machines will have to be installed in the baggage area to facilitate this category of passengers. How can we then exclude this category of passengers from having to pay a charge in the new Airport Administration Charge Act?

 
I am contending that the total revenue budgeted from the implementation of the Act in its present form could still be realised if the amount intended to be charged was reduced, and if transferring passengers were included in the Act to pay a charge, the burden on all nationals who travel will be reduced.
 
I wish to suggest that passengers travelling on a through ticket and transferring to/from a LIAT flight, or between intra-regional flights within 24 hours of arrival into Antigua & Barbuda, should be charged a nominal fee of US $5.
 
Passengers travelling on a through ticket and transferring to/from an extra-regional flight within 24 hours of their arrival here should be charged US $15.

Without this being included in the Act, many persons (such as those arriving from the UK on British Airways or Virgin Atlantic and transferring to a LIAT flight with a through ticket to other islands) will be totally exempted from the charges as they are neither originating their journey nor terminating their journey in Antigua.
 
I am, therefore, urging the Minister of Finance and government technocrats to go back to the drawing board and do the math with the inclusion of the transferring passengers.
 
Instead of only originating and terminating passengers which means every national leaving the state and returning having to pay US $37.50 in each direction, we may be able to get the amount reduced to US $30, or less, in each direction.
 
I trust that expediency does not take precedence over getting it right this time around.
 
 
Rosen Bowery

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