Belize has been grappling with the timeline to open its international
airport, juggling the competing interests of tourism survival against
human survival - that is, letting tourists in, versus keeping Belize
COVID-free.
Sources tell us that as recently as yesterday, plans were being hatched
to proceed with a half opening of the airport in July - but we are told
those plans were dashed at the last minute.
And, with no date in sight, stakeholders in the tourism industry have
been coming forward to amplify their concerns about the continued
damage that the border closure is doing to the economy.
While the Barrow Government grapples with the difficult choice between
economic survival and public health, other Caribbean nations that
heavily depend on tourism are pushing forward to reopen their borders.
Antigua and Barbuda reopened to all countries today, and they received
their first flight from American Airlines. St. Lucia was also scheduled
to reopen its borders. Jamaica will do the same on June 15th, and the
Bahamas will reopen on July 1st.
This morning, the Deputy Director of Operations at Tropic Air, Belize
biggest domestic air-carrier, granted us an interview. He wanted to
make the point that if we wait too long to do the same, that indecision
will cause significant delays in the country's economic recovery.
Here's how he explained why, with a perspective on how the
international airline companies may start to look at which countries
they can begin flights to:
Ravei Nunez - Deputy Director of Operations, Tropic Air
"Other countries that depend on tourism, to a greater or lesser extent than
Belize, have announced that they'll be opening their borders. There's a lot
of questions as to why this would be, why those countries would choose to
do that, and why Belize would choose not to do that. From our perspective,
it's clear why those countries would do that. So, what Jamaica, Aruba,
Mexico, France to some extent, and other countries in Europe have done, is
that they've looked at the lay of the land, and they've determined that
there is a time-sensitive issue with regards. They've determined that these
airlines will go to each country and determine, 1, whether the country is
available for flights, 2, whether it's commercially viable for them to have
those flights that country. So, there's a short-list. These airlines have
determined that only a percentage of their assets will be deployed over a
period of time. Most airlines are averaging 2-5 years before they're
looking at full flights, as in the full schedule that they had pre-COVID.
So, if Belize is making the decision that we will keep our borders
(closed), while other countries are choosing to open their borders, we're
falling further and further down on the list. This means, eventually, we
may not see flights coming to Belize until the airlines have decided that
yes, we will deploy 1 or 2 more assets to fly to Belize. After we've
opened, it will take 1 to 2 months for the airlines to determine yes, we'll
start flying to Belize on X date. After that X date, you're still looking
at another 2-3 months before we see passengers start to fly to Belize. So,
that puts off - even if we were to open July 15th. That puts off any
meaningful benefit to that decision until all the way to September, October
before we start seeing the benefits of it."
We also asked Nunez to discuss the current hold up, and why the
government isn't prepared to reopen the PGIA. You'll remember how the
Prime Minister said last week that the International Air Transport
Association, disapproved of Belize's proposal to require travel testing
for international visitors. According to the PM, the IATA made it clear
that this is not a viable option, and that Belize should wait on the
development of a reliable rapid test.
Nunez told us that after reviewing all of IATA's written
recommendations for COVID-19 and air travel, he has not seen any
document from them in which they mandate rapid testing as a requirement
for reopening airports:
Ravei Nunez - Deputy Director of Operations, Tropic Air
"The international bodies have presented recommendations and/or guidelines.
So ICAO, for example, deals with regulations. So, they can tell us what we
need to do. Bodies like IATA give recommendations, guidelines, and best
practices to ensure the long-term survivability and profitability of
airlines. There has been documentation where IATA has said it supports
rapid testing. It has never, in any of its documentation, placed rapid
testing for the opening of any airport or any facility that supports
aviation. The Prime Minister has said that in addition to his concerns
about coronavirus coming into Belize and they're being secondary infections
as a result, that he has great concerns about the socio-economic impact of
the course of action that we're currently undertaking. He's mentioned - I
think the words he used were that he grieves for Belize because the course
of action we're on will come with grave socio-economic consequences."
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