OECS Tourism Ministers to Discuss High Cost of Travel on the Regional airline

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Tourism News

Sunday, 12 July 2009 17:16

By CMC

Tourism ministers from the sub-regional Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) meet in St.Lucia on Wednesday with the high cost of travel on the regional airline, LIAT, among the main agenda items.

The ministers’ meeting is being preceded by the eighth meeting of the Committee of Ministers responsible for Civil Aviation and their technical officials on Monday.

The latest criticism of the airfare structure of the Antigua-based airline has come from the St. Lucia Minister of Tourism Allen Chastanet who said Castries was requesting an investigation into LIAT’s fares since it was hurting intra-regional travel.

Chastanet blamed the airline’s fare structure and the loss of competition on the various routes for an estimated 50,000 passengers not visiting the island over a two year period.  

The ministers will also discuss plans for the resuscitation of the civil aviation industry through the revitalisation of the small airline sector.

“We will be examining the cost of operating small airlines and explore means of getting them re-established in the region,” Chastanet said.

The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, St.Kitts-Nevis, Anguilla  and the British Virgin Islands.

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