Persons wishing to travel to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) for Vincy Mas 2017 can feel “pretty much assured” that there will be direct international flights.
Minister of Tourism Cecil “Ces” McKie said this week that negotiations with airlines should be complete by then, but if not, private citizens will organise chartered flights.
With the Feb. 14 opening of Argyle International Airport (AIA), SVG can now receive direct flights from international destinations.
However, no international carrier has announced plans to flight to AIA, which began operating after a six-year delay.
Speaking on Xtreme FM this week, McKie said:
“We have intensified our discussion with the airlines; we have done so for quite a few months now.”
He said his ministry is “confident that there will be some regular (sic) scheduled flights in place by that time (Vincy Mas), from North America — which is USA and Canada, and possibly from the UK as well”.
He said Vincentians in the United Kingdom “feel very left out of what transpired over the last two weeks”.
He was referring to the chartered flights from New York and Canada that landed at Argyle on Feb. 14, with the return leg on Feb. 21.
McKie said flights are expected to be in place “by Carnival”.
Vincy Mas 2017 is scheduled to take place from June 24 to July 11.
The tourism minister said that private persons have already indicated that they will be organising chartered flights to SVG.
“So, persons are pretty much assured that there will be flights available to get to the destination. And the ministry, as a ministry, we will ensure that that happens,” McKie said.
Really? I can’t believe it! Surprise! Surprise! World busser news! Incredible!
This is ridiculous! Now that the AIA is in operation, no one could give us any information on which international carriers they are in discussion with to have direct flights to AIA. What’s the big secret. It appears that come carnival, the only international flights that will be landing at AIA are chartered flights. Then they would make it sound like we are having active commercial international flights to AIA. This is crazy! What ever happened to the commitments announced by PM of airlines, such as Qatar Air and others? Have all those airlines gone to the winds?
Travel agents are the one who control passengers schedule on an airline, not the airline. The travel agents will not go out on a limb to arrange a flight, unless they can come up with the money in advance. A group can contact a travel agent to do the ground work in booking passengers for a charter, but the airline must be sure it sees the potential for a profit. It’s not as easy as Ces McKie has indicated. Lots of planning and work has to be done to pull off a charter.
No airline just pickup and decide to fly to a destination. There are lots more planning involved. Ces is probably thinking visitors are coming from Mespo or Chato.