The government will provide market support but will not pay for empty seats on the airlines that will begin flying to St. Vincent over the next two months.
“We are hoping to provide market support. In fact, I’m hoping that in some of the local newspapers this week, we’ll have ads paid for by the Tourism Authority inviting people to book on some of these scheduled airlines coming to the country,” Minister of Tourism Carlos James said at a press conference.
“We intend to work closely and collaboratively with some of these airlines to ensure we can ramp up visitors to the destination,” he said as he fielded questions.
The minister, however, said that the arrangement “doesn’t require paying for empty seats.
“It’s market support, in terms of collaboratively working with them to facilitate their entry into the destination. It’s called market support,” James said.
He was speaking after noting that four airlines will begin servicing the destination within two months and existing carriers will add more flights.
James said that LIAT2020 will make its inaugural flight to SVG on Oct. 4, and will make five flights weekly.
On Oct. 9, SVG will welcome its first JetBlue flight from New York, with flights continuing on Wednesdays and Sundays.
“JetBlue is a low-cost carrier airline, and no doubt is one of the more impactful carriers within the North American market in terms of moving people,” James said.
“And the diaspora community, they have been in touch and are quite excited with the announcement of JetBlue. We are also thrilled with JetBlue coming to St. Vincent and the Grenadines on October 9.”
He said the entry of JetBlue into the Vincentian market will provide “competition and lower airfares for existing air carriers”.
Caribbean Airlines also provides flights between St. Vincent and New York.
“It’s no secret that coming to St Vincent and the Grenadines, you look at the price of the air freight, both for a cargo, and you look at the price of tickets for travellers, and we have to see how we can have more affordable flights to the destination,” the tourism minister said.
“And no doubt, with JetBlue’s entry into St. Vincent and the Grenadines, this is certainly going to shake the needle a little bit down to accommodating a lot more affordable tickets to the destination, which is going to translate into more people being able to afford tickets to the country, and more people coming home from the diaspora, and, of course, more bookings for hotels and other related services on island,” James said.
In addition to JetBlue and LIAT2020, WINN Air and Sunrise are expected to begin flying to SVG over the next few weeks.