Skip Barnette, the chief executive of Caribbean Star, has responded in detail to comments made by Peter Davies, the chief executive of Caribbean Airlines, at last week's Network route planning conference about the need for a single Caribbean carrier to represent the region.
The comments from Davies are to be found on the Airline Business blog, while Skip's are printed in full below.
Other news about Caribbean Star sees the carrier finalising its merger with Antigua-based Liat, whose own chief executive Mark Darby has been talking about life as a Caribbean airline CEO in the pages of Airline Business.
Skip Barnette's comments about calls for airline consolidation in the Caribbean are reprinted here in full:
"My response to this would be that it is a wonderful vision.
However, from a practical perspective, it is not likely to happen in the near future. The resultant elimination of individual carrier brands, like LIAT, Star of the Caribbean, Air Jamaica and Cayman Airways would not likely be acceptable to the people and ultimately the governments of the islands they represent, irrespective of the financial performance.
In the case of LIAT, Star of theCaribbean, we have built a profitable, self-sustainable model for the future that protects the visibility of the LIAT name, and recognizes the contribution of Caribbean Star to the combined company going forward.
A more viable option, and one that we were pursuing with Caribbean Star, was to seek broad-based alliances among the regions carriers, using the combined resources of the existing carriers in a more complimentary role, and where possible, consolidating operations and taking advantage of the collective purchasing power of the aligned carriers in order to seek the best possible price for goods and services.
It is practical, in the short-term for LIAT, Star of the Caribbean to work closely with Caribbean Airlines to provide turbo-prop connecting services for passengers connecting with the islands. This would be a good first step towards a closer working relationship that both carriers could benefit from.
The prospect of Caribbean Airlines operating a fleet of turboprop aircraft is impractical and would likely be considered a direct effort to undermine the future of an airline with a 50-year history of operations within the Caribbean. In my view, this would not benefit the carriers, the shareholders, or the people of the Caribbean.
A mid-term vision, beyond the initial alliance step, could be a single, worldwide marketable brand, that allows the individual carriers to maintain someidentity which would protect visibility of the individual carriers history and brand, and afford the employees the opportunity to feel a part of a company, and not just a brand.
Clearly, a single airline of the Caribbean is, from a business perspective, a grand goal. However, given the history, pride and cultural attachment that employees and customers have to the current group of airlines, it is not, from my perspective, one that will be achieved.
Keep in mind, BWIA is still in the process of transitioning to Caribbean Airlines, and LIAT and Caribbean Star are in the process of consolidating into LIAT, Star of theCaribbean.
Let's stay focused on working towards ensuring, that individually, both of these carriers are safe, reliable, friendly to their customers, and self sustaining.
An alliance between the two would help support that goal."
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