7 News Belize

Airport Remains Open, Arrivals Trickle
posted (March 16, 2020)

And while the Prime Minister did not specify whether those are personal or company loans - the focus right now is primarily on the hardest hit tourism sector.  Bookings have disappeared, and thousands of jobs are on the line.  Additionally, airlines are cutting back on flights.  

And that is why government has not closed the airport.   Here's how the Prime Minister explained it:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister

"In terms of leaving the PGIA open, the tourism sector is suggesting that already the bookings have plummeted to such an extent that there is very little coming in and if we were to lock down PGIA that would stop completely. We do hear reports and it takes me back to what I had said at the last press conference that we ought not to be in too much of a rush to close down because we will be closed down involuntarily. I said that about the cruise and by the next day Trump said no more cruises. We are not able to confirm that some of the airlines where I think the phrase was going dark on Belize at the end of the month. Mrs. Bevans attempted to confirm that and that has been denied but the point is that that's not even necessarily a health decision it's an economic decision. People are not flying as they used to and the airlines have to look at the bottom line if they're going to be keeping planes in the skies. For good or for bad we the national oversight committee did not feel that the time is now to close down the Philip Goldson International Airport."

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