Chief Sec: Fix for air travel woes may lie outside CAL, government

THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine has said the solution to fixing disruptions on the airbridge may lie outside of state-owned carrier Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) and the government.

He made the statement on Tuesday while addressing a stakeholder consultation on inter-island transportation and connectivity at Mt Irvine Bay Resort, Tobago.

“While we decide on what CAL can do, what the Parliament can do, we also should also discuss if there are strategies we can employ outside of Cabinet, outside of CAL, to fix this,” he told the audience, which included Tobago Chamber of Commerce president Curtis Williams and former Tobago Hotel and Tourism Association vice-president Carol-Ann Birchwood-James.

Augustine suggested finding money to wet-lease some planes.

“Should we find every imaginable airline that we can find and just have them come here directly?”

But he said this might present some challenges.

“Is there someone in Trinidad who has to sign off and agree, that this new flight from a new place can come here? And if that is the case, do we then return to square one?”