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Task Fourth - 4th Caribavia Meetup ends with homework to do

Back in 2017 Hurricane Irma devastated the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean, causing catastrophic damage in Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla, and the Virgin Islands.

Landfall hit while Cdr. Bud Slabbaert - himself a considerable force of nature - was developing an event that has since become an annual must-attend - a meeting of like-minded powerhouses whose mission is to fix the shambolic intra island airlift in the Caribbean.

I rarely write nowadays, however #Caribavia19 at the Simpson Hotel tempted me over to St Maarten in the Dutch Antilles to report on what is happening there. I first visited the island in 2015 as it was promoting Princess Juliana Airport - its state of the art terminal on the Dutch side with a flagship Air Traffic Management system. Back then Princess Juliana had ambitious plans for its ATM training, far beyond the region. Sadly the airport took a direct hit.

Caribavia MeetUp organiser, Cdr. Bud Slabbaert.

Post Irma the island is recovering. A co-financing package from the Sint Maarten Trust Fund (US$51m) and the European Investment Bank (US$50m) has been mobilized to rebuild the airport passenger terminal. There is a further US$128m from the Netherlands to aid home and shelters repairs as well as clean up projects. There is still not enough hotel capacity and the airport terminal is still under construction, however, St Maarten is now healthy enough to play host to Slabbaert’s innovative Meetup and definitely on the map again as a tourist destination.

Which is partly the point of the Meetup . . . a major pain in the butt for the region’s tourist industry is the badly organised intra island airlift. A 2015 study commissioned by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) highlighted poor management and incentives; outside interference; lack of scope for economies of scale; lack of cooperation (between airlines and between airports and airlines); regulatory issues; and policy issues, such as taxation.

Taxation is a major bugbear, and one of the Meetup speakers Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, a Bahamian politician turned consultant, is keen to tackle it at source. The CDB report says that since Travel & Tourism account for 15.2% of GDP and 4.3% of jobs in the region, they are an export sector just like agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, or pharmaceuticals.

Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace.

Vanderpool-Wallace argues that the heavy taxes imposed on airline tickets negatively impact potential taxable revenues, most of which come once passengers have landed. If most of the spend is on the ticket, then people a) will either be put off travel or b) spend less once they deplane.

He was just one of several dynamic regulars Slabbaert has gathered together for his events. The Honourable Stuart Johnson, Minister of Tourism kicked proceedings off, which got livelier and livelier as the days progressed.

The players were serious and committed to change. Gabriel Amado, President of the United Tour Operators Foundation, for example has a clear vision for future developments in the area, and invests time and energy into developing young talent and lectures on entrepreneurship at the University of St.Maarten. He does not believe in borders, rather sees potential in connections.

Meanwhile Brian Luke, CEO of the Safesky Group, extolled the virtues of proper training in order to build reliable air service and staunch the drastic regional migration of talented young people. Elizabeth A. Clark, Executive Director and Founding member of Women in Corporate Aviation, led a session on bringing more women into aviation and challenged locals to introduce young people into their worlds by bringing them into their working environments.

For Day 2 Slabbaert had arranged the sessions at Grand Case Airport on the French side, where delegates enjoyed being airside on an operational airport, and were even treated to a live medevac scene (nobody was hurt).

Visionary local architect Damien Richardson has grand designs for Grand Case. He visualises the terminal becoming a destination in itself with meeting rooms and a “smart skin” cover concept for hurricane protection. Watch out for his work - it is revolutionary.

A key impediment to growth is that the region is highly complex and highly regulated. St Maarten alone covers Dutch and French airspace. The five smaller airports which surround it, on the islands of Anguilla, Saba, Saint Barth, Sint Eustatius and at Grand-Case in French St. Martin, come under three different civil aviation authorities: the Dutch, French and the UK. Further complexity comes because SXM falls within the San Juan Flight Information Region (FIR) overhead and to the west, and in the Piarco FIR to the east and south. There also is a huge mix of traffic fast moving aircraft, such as Boeing 747-400 types alongside small Cessna 172s.

This scenario is repeated throughout the Caribbean. To that end Slabbaert had invited the regulators - who made a welcome contribution to the discussion. The Honourable Daniel Gibbs, President of the Collectivité of Saint Martin, opened the event, while Giselle Hollander, Curacao’s Director of Traffic & Transport gave a presentation where she admitted that it is important that the region plan cooperatively rather than solely on a per island basis.

The Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority also fielded a speaker for the first time at the Meetup in the form of Capt. Paul Delisle, Flight Operations Inspector. Pilot licensing across jurisdictions is a huge issue, and Delisle pointed out that while ECAA’s legislation virtually the same as most nations it issues licenses for, it has to issue separate documents for each country.

Rob Ceravolo.

Runway capacity and availability is also problematical and Florida’s Tropic Ocean Airways CEO Rob Ceravolo sees huge potential for the use of floatplanes in the region, offering extra take off and landing capabilities. He spoke from experience. His firm recently completed the first water landing in Cuba in more than 60 years. He is committed to growing his business in the Caribbean and campaigns tirelessly for regulatory change.

Marie Roger Biloa, CEO of The Africa International Media Group.

Aside from politics, another interesting session was to highlight the business potential of a link between the Caribbean and the African continent. Serial entrepreneur Marie Roger Biloa, CEO of The Africa International Media Group, moderated a panel discussion between Nigerian Anthony Aledejana, Co-owner of St Maarten’s African Market and Ghanaian Désiré Whadjah Aman, Business Developer, Cross Media Consultant for foreign TV, Paris. Both Biloa and locally based entrepreneur Joel Ayuk, founder of Cani TV visualise opportunities to create a trading bond between the people on both sides of the Atlantic who share common roots.

Caribavia also hosts the Caribbean edition of the Sapphire Pegasus Awards, where winners included Ceravolo and BlueSky columnist Paula Kraft.

Paula Kraft, Founder of DaVinci Inflight Training - and BlueSky columnist - receives her Sapphire Pegasus Award at Caribavia.

Perhaps the best session of the entire conference resulted from Slabbaert’s closing question: “What did we learn from this year's conference and how are we going to make it better next year?” Rather than being the domain of a few bloated post lunch stragglers as is the norm at such events, the room electrified and the discussion was lively. The hotel had to ask everyone to leave and attend the closing dinner.

Several people went away with homework for next year, which they committed to fulfil on and report back regularly on throughout the next 12 months to us media bods. A* to DaVinci Inflight Training Founder Paula Kraft, who delivered on hers before the event drew to a close. She donated five training scholarships to local companies, starting immediately.

Looking forward to giving more top marks to the other players as the year progresses . . .

gearup.tv

BlueSky Business Aviation News | 27th June 2019 | Issue #516

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