The Anguilla Hotel and Tourism Association has circulated information to its members stating that effective October 31 LIAT will only have one flight a day into Anguilla, arriving at 5.35 pm from Antigua and returning there at 6.30 pm.
Mrs Gilda Gumbs-Samuel, the AHTA’s Executive Director, said she had spoken to LIAT authorities who had confirmed the information. She informed the AHTA’s members that the LIAT schedule “will not allow for many connections, so it seems that most persons will have to now overnight in Antigua.”
It also means that the cutback in the airline’s flights to Anguilla will adversely affect the Anguilla –St Thomas route.
Chief Minister and Minister of Tourism, Mr Hubert Hughes, was asked to comment on the matter. “Anguilla will now have to rely on St Maarten,” he told The Anguillian. “We cannot ignore the fact that airlines continue to look for routes which are very lucrative to them. Anguilla has not been lucrative as we have limitations regarding our infrastructure airport situation … and it has a snowballing effect. If we don’t have a strong economy, we won’t have a lot of people on the move. Anguilla’s economy has declined too much over the last fifteen years or more. If you look around the Caribbean you will see that every country in the region only took off when they did something about the airport infrastructure; and the British have done everything to ensure that Anguilla does not have a sustainable airport situation.”
He continued: “When I had the French coming to build an airport in Brimigen, with their own private capital, the British issued them with an ultimatum that if they do, it would be a very unfriendly act to Britain. So that airport was stalled. We are struggling to get an expansion at Wallblake and we still have difficulty in arguing with the British side of the fence. And this time it is ideal because the Lakes are very much involved in that airport ownership and development through their land.
“They [the British] have nothing to argue about but they are still playing the fool as if an airport is a danger for Anguilla. It is not a danger for Jersey or Guernsey; it was not dangerous for Bermuda when Bermuda was run exclusively by Britain. It is not dangerous for the Cayman Islands, but an airport is dangerous for Anguilla – and they are going to make sure that Anguilla is just left like a piece of rock in the sea, the way they are behaving. I am sick and tired of fighting for these things.”
Returning to the matter with LIAT, Mr Hughes said the airline was losing money in its operations in the Eastern Caribbean, as his discussions at regional meetings indicated.
Asked about the possibility of other airlines flying to Anguilla, he replied: “There is the question of load base – whether they can land here. Jet Blue and Air Canada are ready and willing to come to Anguilla. All we need is another 1,500 feet. This will mean that Anguilla can transform overnight and we will have direct flights from North America coming to Anguilla on a regular basis. All the tourism industry in Anguilla is calling for is airport expansion and we have a wonderful project with the Lakes, and a foreign developer, but nobody is interested. Nobody is interested.”
Chief Minister Hughes added that Anguilla will have to rely on St Maarten for additional airlift.
