Trinidad and Tobago hosting international aviation forum with no local input

THE EDITOR: On August 22-23, the Centre for Aviation (CAPA) will have its Airline Leader Summit for Latin America and the Caribbean, at the Hyatt Regency in Port of Spain. The Airports Authority (AATT) is the host for this event.

There are 33 listed speakers for the summit – yet not one local representative is carded to speak!

How is it possible that in 2024, TT is hosting a major international aviation conference and there is not one single listed speaker representing our country?

You think I am making this up? Here is the link to the summit: https://laas24.capaevents.com/

Featured speakers include Jose Freig, VP, International Operations, for American Airlines; Christine Valls, director, Latin America and the Caribbean, for United Airlines; Tracy Cooper, managing director, Bahamas Air; and Rosa Harris, director of the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism.

Where are our people?

Caribbean Airlines (CAL) should have been a major player and contributor to this summit. It is not even mentioned as a sponsor or participant. One can only surmise that its failure to present its 2016-2023 audited accounts may have been an impacting factor.

The optics are just not good.

I am so ashamed that the AATT could not find one person from Trinidad and Tobago, in the aviation or tourism sectors, worthy of presenting on the nation's behalf. Does anyone think this would happen in another Caribbean country?

What do the AATT board, its chairman Christopher Alcazar and managing director Hayden Newton have to say about this?

It seems the AATT is more concerned with having the police chase away plane-spotters from around the perimeter of the airport than having TT properly represented.

There are local people who write about the economics of growing the general aviation sector and light sport aviation. They also write about the importance of carving out niche markets in blue oceans which are uncharted territories. No one takes them on.

By the way, are taxpayers in any way subsidising this summit?

If we are, then this makes the absence of any local speaker, even more telling, embarrassing and egregious.

LINUS F DIDIER

Mt Hope