CAL change fee report not yet public

The findings of the joint committee between the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) and Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) to monitor the impact of the TT$50 one-way change fee to flight and/or date changes made by passengers on domestic flights between Trinidad and Tobago is yet to be made public

This, from THA Secretary of Tourism, Culture and Transportation Councillor Nadine Stewart-Phillips, as she was responding to questions posed by reporters during Wednesday’s post Executive Council media briefing at the Victor E Bruce Financial Complex in Scarborough.

Stewart Phillips said: “The Committee did complete their work, however, the Executive Council, we are awaiting a joint presentation with representatives from both the Tobago House of Assembly and Caribbean Airlines. They are to make that presentation to the Executive Council after which, the report will be made available.”

The question was asked following concerns raised by minority councillor Dr Faith BYisrael at a recent news conference hosted by the Progressive Democratic Patriots (PDP) at the party’s headquarters, uptown Scarborough. At that time, BYisrael called on Chief Secretary Kelvin Charles to disclose the findings of the five-member committee, chaired by Gerald MacFarlane and comprising of Nigel Wilson and Richard Edoo as THA representatives, along with Neil Gajadhar and Nirmala Ramai as CAL representatives.

The $50 change fee took effect on December 17, 2017 and the committee was expected to operate for six months from June 1, 2018.

BYisrael said: “We have been trying to figure out, for the life of us, if that report was done because a little ‘birdie’ has mentioned that it was done, and what is the report from that committee?

"That committee was set up to look at how Tobagonians were negatively affected by this $50 Tobago penalty and the report was supposed to look at whether we can work this out and whether it was working to our benefit.

"It is quite sad and almost annoying that in August of 2019 we keep having these conversations about inter-island travel between Trinidad and Tobago.”