An international carrier will begin flying from Argyle International Airport to Miami, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said on Wednesday, the first anniversary of the opening of the airport.
“… I’m not calling the name of the airline. We will have Miami. And I’m hoping that when we get Buccama on the Bay up and running that we will be coming out of London,” Gonsalves said.
“So that in one year, we haven‘t done badly. We haven’t done badly at all in the first year,” he said.
Buccament Bay Resort, a favourite hotel for British tourist, has been closed since December 2016. The government says the privately owned, heavily indebted resort, should reopen later this year.
The AIA-Miami flight will follow the March 14 commencement of flights from New York’s JFK to Argyle, which Caribbean Airlines will begin operating on March 14.
Air Canada Rouge, which on Dec. 14, became the first international carrier to operate non-stop scheduled flights to Argyle, is slated to continue those flights until April 14.
Gonsalves said that some persons were asking why it took so long to get flights to get to New York.
He said that while the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA) has approved the AIA, the Department of Transport in the United States has to give an airline permission to fly from the United States to Argyle.
“And other places accept what ECCAA says, but the Americans, before the Department of Transport gives the OK, they need to hear what TSA thinks. And TSA has to come and look at you. Not a pass or fail, you know. And they then tell the Department of Transport it is ok, the fellas have everything is order. We can trust them.”
Gonsalves said a tremendous amount of technical and other work had to be done for the airport to start getting flights.
“Doesn’t mean that we still don’t have challenges… but we are coming well…” he said.
Miami in the house, kudos to Glen and his team for doing an exceptional job.
Observer how do you know Miami is in the house, you must be aware by now you cannot take anything he says prior to it happening as a fact.
A poor start for a facility that has been open for over a year now, has done nothing to upgrade its tourist facilities or add new ones, and has seen its largest hotel at Buccament Bay close.
It should also be noted that the airline industry, the most cutthrout in the world with hundreds of backruptcies, acquisitions, mergers, and new carriers over the past few decades, often sees airlines flocking to a new destination, as shown by the opening up of Cuba two years ago and then quickly retreats due to over-expansion and over-optimism about the growth in passengers and/or tourist accomodations, exactly what happended in Cuba when several carriers either stopped flying there last year or reduced their service, a process we will also see at Argyle, a process that continues to occur all over the Caribbean except that in our own case, an island at the bottom of the tourism barrel slipping and sliding on the slime below as it tries, in vain, to climb out.
YO David, to you man the oldest rule in the book apply, If you do not have nothing good to say SHUT TO HELL UP, it time we stop trying to break and pull things down, instead of pulling then up, so shut up
Please Mike, try not to come here and be so rude, you just may hurt the persons feelings.
Not a thing like you could ever shut me up.
You are such an an hateful fool, you never seem to be able to be positive even when good things happen. Which countries or how much countries in the Caribbean do you know that in one year at least had one international schedule flight coming to their shores since the built their first opening of their International airport? The hate you have in your heart will someday eat you like cancer. You such a blight and a curse even to your own self.
Webby dearey, nothing has happened to be positive about, just a few words that you may discount because of past perfomance. No other country in the Caribbean has only had one International carrier arriving on a part time seasonal basis. Only Argyle so, Webb stop being silly about this.
David baby, you must be loving all the people saying how much they dislike you, what you say and what you stand for. They can’t all be wrong.
Man end of the day to David i am still saying shut the hell up, like negative kill positive any day, instead of being so down on the Argyle air port man, why can you see the good in it, coming from overseas no one like to be hopping from air port to air port spending all day just to get home man, like on the real, at least you can now get to St.vincent direct from some country, and all countries are just not going to be like, ok let go there now, there are always procedure man,
Let’s wait and see if it’s so ,no kudos as yet I’m keeping my fingers crossed and don’t forget to take a pinch of salt .
Sylgringo, looks like you are the only one who recognises it may well be yet another lie.
Kudos to C.Ben David, dumbest professor, most miserable dude.
Observer he may be a pratt but sometimes he is half right, whilst most of the time you are all wrong.
I think once Buccament Bay is up and running again,and the soon to be constructed Black Sands Resort,things will start picking up.There seems to be a lot of negative comments on here,i think its because we are not used to mass tourism and a lot of people still can’t believe we have an international Airport,even now it’s up and running.
But the comrade told us to expect 10 400 seat aircraft a week, but the airport would not be able to handle one in two days, the arrival facilities are simply too small.
If the airport was a success it simply would not be capable of handling the people trafic.
If a 400 seat aircraft arrived and a couple of LIAT or other regional flights arrived, they would be lined up outside for 4 hours or more.
I make it a point to ostracize C.ben-David . I do not read his post. His contrubutions are always negative and full of pessimism.
Now socialist, to start with I would stop using that title, because socialism still carries no respect in the region.
But if you do not read what C. ben – David writes, how do you know what he writes is always negative and full of pessimism. How do you know that?
You may well be right, but what you wrote also makes you a liar.
As for Ostrichsizeing David, he is a strange bird I must admit, so you are right there.
The man is a complete lair, con artist, impressionist, believe he knows it all. Suffering from mental shock. Chance, Peter’s Hope project is in progress, they’ve started during the week.
Buccama soon rise, let that dog continue to bark. He’s upset cause no one is entertaining him.
How many foreign tourists could we ever expect to fly here from Miami, the centre of a State — Florida — with perhaps the most impressive sub-tropical tourist facilties in the world which is why Florida annually sees over 110 million tourists spending some $EC 300 billion in the process creating employment for about 1.5 million people, many of them economic refugees from the Caribbean, including our own country.
We are way over our heads and slowly drowning with the crazy notion that our hospitality-challenged mainland would ever become a popular tourist destination just because we built a pint-sized airport at Argyle.
Regardless of what anyone writes about C.ben, I still appreciate his facts about the airport and tourism in general. In those areas he for some reason really knows what he is talking about. Yes, he certainly projects alot of negativity, that should motivate all of us to come up with solutions to our problems instead of just attacking the messenger. We should first see if there will be flights from Miami, how long they will last and if tax-payers money is not being spent just to get the flights to come here.
Paying airlines for empty seats is the only way, any and all airlines will fly in once it is financially viable to do so. Full or empty they will come if they are paid.
Lostpet expect no better from you, you’re one of his follower obviously you’ll defend darkness.
he does have a point tho…do the research