It's up in the air...

Noticed two interesting stories on air travel as I was doing my morning round of news reading.

First, this one from the UK, where the British government has decided against getting a private jet for the Prime Minister. The idea had first been mooted two years ago, under the previous Prime Minister Tony Blair, but present PM Gordon Brown, good Scot that he is, has decided that it was perfectly fine to continue travelling on privately chartered planes or military jets.

From MSNBC:

The plan was announced two years ago by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair — and immediately was dubbed "Blair Force One" by journalists.

But the Department for Transport said officials decided Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the royal family should continue to use scheduled flights or charter commercial planes when they need to fly overseas.

The plan had called for the government to acquire two planes — a large jet for overseas travel and a small aircraft for short-haul flights.

Transport Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the government would lease a small plane for official travel within Britain.

Brown, a Scot, has a reputation for frugality and has taken steps to distance himself from the more flamboyant style of his predecessor.

In a statement to lawmakers, Fitzpatrick said there had been "substantial increases in the cost of buying and operating commercial aircraft" since the idea was raised in 2006. He said the new plan would be a better value and would cut emissions of carbon dioxide from official travel by about 10 percent.

This is interesting to me in light of the thwarted-for-now case of hubris and ego over in neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, where Prime Minister Patrick Manning's government has onlyj ust backed down from their attempts at securing a private jet for the government, after denying initially that was what they were trying to do. They tried to duck around by claiming it was actually going to be acquired by the state-owned(!) Caribbean Airlines (formerly Bwee) and was not really for the government's use, but no-one was fooled. The Trinidad Express, in an editorial, opined:

Caribbean Airlines (CAL) will want the citizenry to believe that its decision to stall the plan to acquire an executive jet was based on the high principle of being determined not to go ahead with the transaction unless the contract included a watertight or, perhaps, more accurately in the context, an airtight anti-corruption clause.

But more citizens will be inclined to take the view, eagerly expressed by Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday, that the State airline's retreat was a "victory for the people", meaning those who made known their opposition to what was seen to be another example of the spendthrift ways of a revenue-rich administration whose leader, rather than set an example of fiscal restraint to the nation, was seen to be encouraging its traditional spendthrift ways fuelled, as he continues to be, by the grandiose delusions that often afflict prime ministers and presidents of so-called developing nations.

Certainly, public suspicion was aroused in 2006 when the media broke the news that Mr Manning and his wife had taken a "test drive" on a Bombardier executive jet, and while it was quelled by Minister Colm Imbert's assurances that the buying of a jet was nowhere on the horizon, when the jet flew into the news again, with CAL disclosing that it was getting into the private jet business on the basis of the Government not only providing the purchase money but taking on board all the financial risks, the public quite justifiably drew a connecting line between the "test drive" and that plan.

In this, I actually fully agreed with the views of Opposition Leader Basdeo Panday- and it is rare that I ever hold the same view as the Silver Fox! Really, if the Prime Minister of Britain, a genuine developed country and world power, does not need a private jet, what on earth does the Prime Minister of a small island (yes, Bim is smaller but looka, we all small, hear?) need a private jet for? Who is Manning? Who outside of the Caribbean, really, really want to see and meet with him so bad and so regularly that he needs a private jet? Stupsssssse... The only major regular travelling he would have to do wouldbe to various CARICOM meetings - aside from that, everything else is about average for the leader of any other developing country and FAR LESS than that required for the leaders of countries like Canada, France and the UK, none of which have private jets for their leaders.
Manning feel cause Trinidad have oil money that mean they rich? When the average Trini is still poorer than the average Bajan? It appalls me that the leader of a country that could only afford to introduce universal and free secondary education a mere 8 years ago and only started paying for tertiary education at UWI a year and a half ago, want to play powerful-foolish. Skipper, you ent nearly reach jet status yet.

Next thing now - on the back page of today's Nation newspaper, there is a story about how badly the merger of LIAT and the former Caribbean Star (and the rampant eye-jucking LIAT has gleefully engaged in ever since) has affected regional travel. According to St. Lucia's tourism Minister, Allan Chastanet, intra-regional travel has dropped by anywhere from 30 to 40 per cent. The story also gives dismal estimations from other sources, such as the president of the Barbados Hotel and Tourism Association (BHTA) Alvin Jemmott who stated that the local tourism sector lost BD$5 million, because of a 16 per cent drop in CARICOM travellers. The Barbados Statistical Service estimated that 13 000 (16%) less visitors came from CARICOM countries, not including Trinidad, last year. For Trinidad, usually one of our most reliable CARICOM tourist sources, there was a 12.2% drop in visitors.

It cannot go on so. Simply put. I was not neccessarily fond of Allan Chastanet's stance of not supporting LIAT financially and bringing in American Eagle to compete against it because I felt it put more pressure on the islands that did contribute, like Barbados, St. Vincent and Antigua. But he may well have been right. Things are NOT getting better at LIAT. In fact, it seems that the lack of competition has made them ease off and relax and things are now patently worse. And the prices are astro-fucking-nomical! I can't explain it, I can't justify it. I did a whole long piece last year comparing LIAT's prices to that of budget airlines in Europe, such as Ryanair and Easyjet, which travel comparable distances. It takes about as long to get from one European capital to the other as it takes to get from one island to the other - it's the same distance, the same amount of fuel, yet the prices are up to twice as much! It cannot be justified - all the lot of excuses LIAT is giving us, it is becoming increasingly clear that the problem is THEM. Poor management, poor service - just piss poor.

Regional governments need to do something. Tourism is the life blood of most of our economies. A drop in intra-regional travel is a serious problem and it cannot be offset by the benefit of making LIAT profitable. If we need to run LIAT like a state-run transport service, which is subsidised, so be it. If we need to encourage budget airlines to come into the Caribbean and give LIAT a run for their money so be it. But the present situation is untenable.