BA Settles Down in St. Lucia

BA Settles Down in St. Lucia
By Janelle de Souza

British Airways will begin offering Trinidadians a daily service to the United Kingdom via St Lucia from March 30 – an increase from the current five weekly schedule. “I am extremely delighted with the increased services as this will give our customers greater opportunities to connect with friends and family, make business connections or just explore and experience the vibrant city of London as a leisure traveler,” said Marcelle Joseph, district manager Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia.

Joseph also noted Caribbean Airlines’ plan to have at least three flights per week to London out of Port-of-Spain beginning in July.

“Competition is healthy,” she said. “Yes, it will eat into our profits but we don’t know exactly how it will affect us as their schedule has yet to be placed in the system. We don’t know if there will be a direct conflict.”

“However, we feel our increased schedule will give people the opportunity for flexibility. There are a total of 11 countries within the Caribbean that go to the UK,” she continued. “What we have done is created a ‘hub and spoke’ type operation so you find we have created a hub on the islands that bring in a heavy volume of passengers. This allows for further regional expansion.”

“The expanded flight schedule, which is routed over St Lucia, also supports inter-regional tourism and facilitates business and leisure activity for individuals and for groups that want to experience the beauty, charm and culture of another Caribbean destination, “she said.

Donna Campton-Charles, Caribbean Marketing Manager of the St Lucia Tourist Board said the Board has been working closely with British Airways (BA) for many years to make St Lucia a more appealing and affordable destination.

“The additional flights are definitely going to help us. For example, for weekend getaways, we can always work closely with BA, to put on a special fare and also on our end, to create special packages such as discounted airport transfers, shopping vouchers where visitors can get discounts from various shopping outlets in St Lucia, etc.

So we try to put together an enticing package along with an enticing airfare thereby encouraging persons to come for a weekend or long holiday,” said Campton-Charles. “We want to continue in that direction and sweeten up the packages by adding more to it, according to what the industry partners in St Lucia are willing to offer.”

Before the global financial crisis, Campton-Charles said St Lucia had an average of 6,000 visitors from TT monthly. Even now, approximately 2,000 TT passengers visit St Lucia every month with more arrivals during Easter and for special events.

According to Campton-Charles, for St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago is a “friends and family” or “leisure market.” Duty free shopping, the adventure aspect, restaurants in Rodney Bay, jazz, all-inclusive properties and St Lucia Carnival are very popular for Trinidadians.

“In St Lucia we try to work very closely with some of the (mas) bands in Trinidad and as a result we see a lot of Trinis play in St Lucia Carnival. Many of the costumes are imported from TT. We definitely piggyback on TT Carnival,” she said.

In addition to the extra flights, BA’s new “First” Product will be introduced on the route four times a week, giving customers a choice of First (first class), Club World (business), World Traveler Plus (premium economy) and World Traveler (economy).

Joseph said the TT market is very important to BA. Therefore the airline remains committed to satisfying the needs of customers who travel both internationally and regionally and expect a high quality product offering.