During the Government’s press conference on Monday, August 16th, Parliamentary Secretary, Mrs. Quincia Gumbs-Marie, with responsibility for tourism, was asked to give an update on the status of Caribbean Airlines opening up airlift to Anguilla. As far back as March 2021, it was announced that Caribbean Airlines was due to begin service into Anguilla during the Summer. Of course, that announcement was made before Anguilla’s one-month cluster closedown, and other mitigating factors could have intervened.
Mrs. Gumbs-Marie stated: “We are still in conversation with Caribbean Airlines. We do have some logistics to work out on our end before the service can begin. We must ensure that we are able to best facilitate the airline as a commercial carrier, and we are working on that.”
The airline is waiting on us,” she said, “to see what possible arrangements can be workable as we make our efforts to facilitate their entry. Hopefully, before year-end we will be notifying the public of Caribbean Airline’s arrival date.”
The Honourable Minister of Tourism, Mr. Haydn Hughes, then added: “Caribbean Airlines has the potential to opening up for us many gateways throughout the Caribbean. We would be able to tap into markets like Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad. In addition to that, once the airline starts service here, Anguilla would be able to benefit from travel from ports like Gatwick, Heathrow, in the UK, and JFK International in the US — through Barbados as a hub.”
Other airlines the Minister mentioned — to provide airlift — include Cape Air which is scheduled to commence flights in December. “Cape has inter-airline agreements with Jet Blue,” the Minister said.
