Secretary: More Easter flights for Tobago coming

Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Ad­di­tion­al flights on the do­mes­tic air­bridge will be in­tro­duced soon to en­sure every­one who wants to get to To­ba­go for the East­er hol­i­days is fa­cil­i­tat­ed.

To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly Sec­re­tary of Youth Em­pow­er­ment and Sport made the an­nounce­ment yes­ter­day at a me­dia brief­ing at the Ho­choy Charles Ad­min­is­tra­tive Com­plex in Calder Hall.

The To­ba­go Tourism and Ho­tel As­so­ci­a­tion (TH­TA) has been clam­our­ing for more Caribbean Air­lines seats as there are cur­rent­ly no avail­able flights to To­ba­go from March 26-April 4.

De­noon said cen­tral gov­ern­ment had giv­en a com­mit­ment to make spaces avail­able on the air­bridge.

“You would be aware, East­er in To­ba­go is al­ways over­sub­scribed. Thank­ful­ly, with the re­la­tion­ship we have with cen­tral gov­ern­ment, they have made a com­mit­ment to en­sur­ing that ad­di­tion­al flights would be made avail­able. We are cur­rent­ly in the process of see­ing how best we could have a jet to ser­vice the air­bridge dur­ing that pe­ri­od. You can look for­ward to hav­ing ad­di­tion­al flights avail­able dur­ing that pe­ri­od,” De­noon said.

TH­TA pres­i­dent Regi­nald MacLean has com­plained that it takes too long to put on ad­di­tion­al flights, not­ing that many peo­ple even­tu­al­ly can­cel their book­ings and make hol­i­day arrange­ments else­where.

De­noon agreed the man­age­ment of the air­bridge dur­ing peak pe­ri­ods is not ac­cept­able.

“No, I am not sat­is­fied, es­pe­cial­ly giv­en the fact my com­mu­ni­ty ben­e­fits sig­nif­i­cant­ly from East­er...be­ing in charge of the biggest events (Buc­coo Goat and Crab Races and Carn­bee/Mt Pleas­ant Sports Day) dur­ing that pe­ri­od.”

How­ev­er, he said the new Gov­ern­ment is col­lab­o­rat­ing with the THA to im­prove the ser­vice.

De­noon said the TT Spir­it and Buc­coo Reef fast fer­ries are un­der­go­ing re­pairs and could bol­ster the seabridge once those are com­plet­ed in time.

“The aim is to have all the ves­sels ready for East­er... If not, the Galleons Pas­sage would al­so be avail­able to take off some of the strain. We are en­sur­ing that every­body who wants to be here in To­ba­go would be able to come whether by air or by sea.”

De­noon said the THA is mind­ful of the in­ter­is­land trans­port chal­lenges, but “some­times what can go wrong will go wrong.”

“But we will do our best to put the nec­es­sary things in place to en­sure that you and all of your fam­i­lies who want to be on this is­land at this time can be. So look out for ad­di­tion­al sail­ings and flights for those of you who have not booked al­ready, and be sure to book ear­ly for next year as well.”

The Buc­coo/Mt Pleas­ant rep­re­sen­ta­tive al­so re­vealed that up­grades are tak­ing place at the Mt Pleas­ant Sport Fa­cil­i­ty to get it ready for the an­nu­al Carn­bee/Mt Pleas­ant Sport and Fam­i­ly Day on East­er Mon­day. He said the bud­get for the re­me­di­al work is $500,000

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia af­ter the me­dia con­fer­ence, TH­TA boss MacLean again lament­ed the tar­di­ness of the de­ci­sion mak­ers.

“It’s al­ways a lit­tle too late, that’s the prob­lem. It’s the same prob­lem for the last 50 years, noth­ing has changed. Every year we com­plain about the same thing.

“I have peo­ple try­ing to get to the is­land, they keep call­ing me for help but there is on­ly so much I can do un­til more flights are put on,” he said.

MacLean said hote­liers are un­able to max­imise their rev­enue be­cause flights are added too late.

“If you’re 85 per cent full, you still have 15 per cent of your rooms and you can’t fill them be­cause you can’t get flights or space on the fer­ry.”

He called for the do­mes­tic round-trips that were re­moved dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic to re­turn.

“Every­thing just takes too long to hap­pen in this coun­try, doesn’t mat­ter who’s in gov­ern­ment.”