Is Barbados planning to ferry it?
Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley. Photo by George Alleyne
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By George Alleyne
Talks are either underway or
about to start with the aim of
transferring majority ownership
of the lone dedicated Caribbean
inter-island air transportation
service, LIAT, from
Barbados to Antigua and Barbuda.
These negotiations are based
on an Antigua offer to buy Barbados’
majority shares, and
while Prime Minister, Mia Mottley
has announced a willingness
to sell most of her island’s
49.4 percent shares and continue
supporting the vital air
service, there is a probability
that her government may be
formulating its own plan to aid
regional transportation.
Past statements by Mottley,
before and after ascending to
head of government, point to
a likelihood that as a cabinet
member is delegated to negotiate
share sales to Antigua while
retaining just about 10 percent,
other officials may be exploring
re-introduction of a Caribbean
ferry service to supplement and
provide a much cheaper alternative
to LIAT’s air transport.
Crowning her previous utterances
on the viability of a regional
ferry service was a statement
on the usefulness of such a service
made during her first address
to a CARICOM Heads of Government
conference as prime minister
in July last year.
“To get the full benefit of our
common space in the movement
of people, cargo and vehicles,
renewed and focussed
leadership is also called for to
translate the much-studied
inter-island ferry service from
concept to reality. To move
beyond talk and to actively
encourage investment by our
private sector to unlock new
categories of travellers,” she
said in Jamaica.
Mottley was talking about a
modern and much more efficient
version of the type of ferry
that plied the Caribbean, moving
people and boosting trade
among the territories up to the
early years after independence
of these nations.
Her frequent talk about
resumption of a people transport
service on the high seas
among these sprinkling of
islands is backed by a Caribbean
Development Bank study that
states, “Ferry travel serves as
a low-cost option for domestic
travel in the Region, with tremendous
potential for growth
beyond domestic travel.”
“An effective intra-island
ferry network throughout the
Region may ease many constraints
facing regional air
transportation. Air transport
in the Region poses a significant
financial burden, and passengers
are inconvenienced by
irregular connections between
countries. Improving marine
passenger transport can also
assist the Region in becoming
more attractive as a tourism
destination, given that tourists
may be inclined to do Caribbean
tours similar to the ‘backpackers’
of Europe.
“Existing routes, particularly
among the OECS countries,
show that ferry transport can
provide reductions in passengers’
costs by more than 30
percent.”
The average cost of any ferry
service among the nine-member
OECS islands is put at $1.06
per mile compared to $56.6 per
mile in this 2018 study titled,
‘Financing the Blue Economy’.
The blue, or ocean, economy
has been recognised as an
under-utilised resource of the
Caribbean.
A signal that her government
has bought into the concept,
the Mottley administration
introduced a Ministry of
the Blue Economy shortly after
winning national elections last
year.