Alec Sanguinetti Questions Delayed Caribbean Air Agreement

Alec Sanguinetti Questions Delayed Caribbean Air Agreement
By Jason Smith

A 2007 agreement signed by Caribbean leaders to move the region towards a shared airspace appears to have been delayed, the leader of a regional tourism organization said.

The San Juan Accord, a memorandum signed by Caribbean ministers of tourism, signed in Puerto Rico on Oct. 19, 2007, aimed to restructure the region’s air transport sector to encourage economic development.

The memo, posted on the website of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, states that leaders agreed to address the escalating cost of regional air travel and the reduction of travel within the Caribbean. To that end, they set several deadlines to be met in 2008.

Then “nothing happened,” according to Alec Sanguinetti, director general of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association. At a press conference in the Virgin Islands last week, he blamed the delays on what he called “implementation deficiency syndrome” and said the public should demand answers from leaders.