Citing the need for more airlift to Anguilla, as part of an access drive for tourists travelling here, and to further facilitate Anguillians flying to and from Puerto Rico, a high-level Cape Air delegation has been told that there is a demand for additional flights to the island.
The delegation, led by the airline’s United States-based Chief Executive Officer, Dan Wolf, Democratic Senator in Massachusetts, was in Anguilla on Thursday, November 15, as part of a Caribbean visit to destinations served by Cape Air. The team met with Government, tourism and hotel representatives who, together with Chief Minister and Minister of Tourism, Hubert Hughes, welcomed the delegates to Anguilla.
Chief Minister Hughes put Anguilla’s access and airlift needs in perspective when he told the delegation: “As you know, we suffer from lack of air communications to and from Anguilla as far as our tourism industry is concerned. We have a master product, but most of our developers complain that there is not sufficient airlift in and out of Anguilla.
“We were very happy when we heard that Cape Air was going to be using Anguilla; and I think that…Cape Air will have to put on extra flights which are not going to be economical. But at least this would give the travelling public the assurance that there is regularity and there is a choice. When they leave mainland United States of America they can have a minimum stop-over in San Juan, Puerto Rico, because that is where our problem is. The travellers have to stay in Puerto Rico much longer than they would like to.
“When you consider that we used to have 3-4 flights during the high tourism season in Anguilla, with American Eagle carrying 30-odd passengers, you would realise that there are quite a few people who are not travelling via Puerto Rico to Anguilla. This is probably because they do not see the regularity of the flightsout of San Juan into Anguilla increase to compensate for the small size of the number of the people which Cape Air takes.
“So basically, I think you will have to increase the regularity, especially in the winter season. Initially, you might have some lower usage, but when people get accustomed to the idea that Cape Air is making five or six flights out of San Juan at specific time frames…[they will use the service]. There are people coming from California, Connecticut, Boston and Florida and in most cases a lot of people come in at different times in the dayor at different times at night. We have to study that pattern of arrivals and departures so that we can know how to feature Cape Air into the slots so that persons will spend minimum time after landing in San Juan.”
The Chief Minister told the airline delegation that the number of hotel rooms in Anguilla was progressively being increased and that would mean additional tourists coming to the island. “We have to be prepared for that, and I would hope that you would consider – apart from the question of promotion which is very important – that you will have to have more regularity of flights especially during the peak season,” Mr Hughes said. “We understand that Cape Air is a very safe and reliable airline and you will have to get over the hurdle of small size. I am sure you have the capacity to do that in your advertisement strategy.”
The Chief Minister was of the view that Cape Air had a problem with insufficient passengers travelling from Anguilla to San Juan. “Probably we need to do much more promotion here in Anguilla to encourage people to use Cape Air,” Mr.Hughes suggested. “When our people go to San Juan, they want to come back the same day. When they flew on American Eagle in the mornings, they would return in the evenings so they had a full day in San Juan to do their shopping. When you take that into consideration, you know full well some flights must be early and some must be very late.”
Cape Air’s CEO, Dan Wolf, said the airline, operating 73 planes, usually made up to 150,000 flights a year but although the aircraft was small, it had an incredible safety record and a large training department. He said that in the case of Anguilla, Cape Air was now making two flights a day to and from San Juan and would increase the number to three a day as from December 17.
“As the loads build, what I would like to see is a service pattern of at least three flights a day in the slow season and five flights a day in the busy season,” he explained.“The way we expand our service is that we need to see the loads on the existing flights start to increase; so as we do that, we are ready, willing and able to add more flight frequency. One of the things that I have found in 25 years of doing this is that especially serving in islands, like Anguilla, the name of the game is frequency.
“If I told you we can have ten flights a day, with a ten-passenger airplane, or one flight a day with a 100-passenger airplane, you will have some people in the community say ‘we would rather have the one flight a day with a 100-seat airplane’, but I can tell you, from experience, the way we build markets is the frequency. Especially when you travel in and out of San Juan, it is going to become less of a hub type of travel where you hit peaks with large occupancy airplanes. It is more of a spread out service pattern where we are much better off seating on a continuous basis with higher frequency and low capacity airplanes. We have done that successfully in virtually every community we have served including the US Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands…”
Dan Wolf said that rather than providing a bigger craft to transport a larger number of passengers his view would be to double or triple the frequency. “I think the ideal goal here would be to get the hourly service so that anytime you wanted to go, you can get on an airplane and go to San Juan,” he observed “There are really two issues: one is what the locals need if you have business, professional or medical needs to get to and from San Juan, and then also how best to accommodate the tourist business. We are focused on the two of these so the commitments are to use our airplanes as a marketing tool to get the locals interested in a new way to fly; continue to grow the numbers so that we can increase the frequency; and let’s use our database as we grow with the Google platforms.”
Mr. Wolf promised that with Anguilla on Cape Air’s base, better bridges would be built for the island with Jet Blue, American Airlines and United Airlines serving the region and the United States
He said that there was trust and complete faith in Cape Air in the United States and other destinations. “We know that we have to keep working on that here, and the best way to do that is education because if we just let people know what the truth is, I think they are going to get more and more comfortable,” he added. “One of the things I would offer you, is the opportunity to identify some local leaders or whoever you would want, and do some scenic tours around the island in our airplane…I think that is a promotional thing we can do on the island that would let people experience the service …I would commit, if you think it is useful, to do some scenic flights around the island with people you would identify because I think that would get them comfortable on the airplane.”
The meeting with the Cape Air delegation, the Chief Minister, other Government officials, tourism and hotel representatives, continued in the Tourist Board’s Conference Room in the absence of the media.
The entire Cape Air delegation comprised Senator Dan Wolf, the airline’s CEO; Linda Markham, the airline’s CAO; Craig Bentley, Vice President of Operations; Cindy Beaton, Vice President of Customer Relations and Corporate Culture; Katya Ruiz, Regional Marketing Officer; Bobby Falcon, Caribbean Regional Manager; Ordley Thompson, Station Manager for Tortola, Anguilla and Nevis; and Senator Wolf’s wife.
The purpose of the visit was to enable the Cape Air delegation “to meet with government and tourism officials to strengthen the already existing commercial relationship.”
