Leewards Island Air Transport (LIAT) once controlled the regional transport hub. It is now out of business for many reasons.

One of the reasons why LIAT went out of business was its load capacity. It was flying with quarter-empty or half-empty aircraft from island to island.

Caribbean Airline Ltd (CAL) has taken up this noble task of trying to connect the Caribbean people. CAL cannot afford to make the same mistakes that LIAT made.

So CAL must ensure its load capacity on every flight is 50 per cent or more. This means it cannot afford to have set days of departure. Passengers must be aware that CAL will not be flying unless it has 50 per cent or more on each flight.

The airline cannot leave Trinidad on an ATR 72-600 aircraft quarter empty to fly to Grenada, then leave Grenada one-third filled to go to St Vincent and almost 50 per cent to St Lucia. In local parlance, CAL would not last as long as a snow cone. It cannot afford to make negative cash flow, which is money that cannot cover overall costs.

CAL is already receiving $700 million from the treasury on an annual basis. The exploration into the region would only put an added burden on its bottom line. So what does it do? Caribbean states are supposed to subsidise their citizens’ airfare. That money must be paid directly to the coffers of CAL monthly. The airline cannot offer Caricom citizens subsidised airfare at TT taxpayers’ expense.

Let us see how far this Caribbean air transport initiative by CAL would be sustained. Caribbean unity has nothing to do with sustaining airplanes in the air. It is based on plain profit and loss and generating positive cash flow.

JOHN JESSAMY

Fyzabad