Janet Silvera, Gleaner Writer

Puerto Rico's Governor Anibal Acevedo-Vila. - Photo by Janet Silvera

Almost crippled by the cancellations of more than 20 per cent of American Airlines flights to its tourism-dependent destination, Puerto Rico says it is fighting back.

Combined, Puerto Rico and the rest of the Caribbean are losing 2.4 million seats from cutbacks by big carriers facing mounting fuel bills.

On Monday, Puerto Rico's Governor Anibal Acevedo-Vila urged regional governments to lobby against the action of the carriers, and to speak out with one voice.

"A voice to inform our airlines that we were not going to take these reductions quietly, and that the Caribbean nations are preparing to work together to maintain our current flights," said Acevedo-Vila at a press conference in Washington during the inaugural Caribbean Tourism Summit, now to be an annual event.

Acevedo-Vila said his country has put together marketing plans, some in collaboration with other airlines, plus new incentives to carriers.

Sliced airline landing fees

The Spanish-speaking country of 3.9 million people, has, for example, sliced airline landing fees and airport charges, "which have served as important negotiating tools," said the governor.

"And, we have been able to promote new services from JetBlue, Spirit, Continental and Delta, from cities like New York, Boston, New Jersey, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, among others."

Still, the new services will fill less than 50 per cent of the void left by American Airlines flights, he said.

Puerto Rico will spend US$4 million to sustain the campaign, but Acevedo-Vila said the spend would not flow as revenues to the carriers.

The governor said the move was to sustain air access not only to Puerto Rico, but those countries for which Puerto Rico operated as a travel hub.

Boost for cruise market

Puerto Rico is also looking to build up the business it gets from the cruise market and has passed a new law to boost its cruise incentive programme to entice ships to its port.

A US$300 million project to modernise the island's port infrastructure, Acevedo-Vila said, has already resulted in an 8.4 per cent increase in travel business to the country over the last two years.

"The law extends our cruise incentive programme throughout 2010-2011, but even more importantly, this decree determines that on the eventuality that we manage a 20 per cent increase by June 30, 2011, these incentives will automatically be extended to June 30, 2014," said the Governor.

A portion of the earnings generated from cruise calls, US$10 million, goes into a fund for the development of Puerto Rico's maritime industry.

janet.silvera@gleanerjm.com

Taken from the Financial Gleaner, Friday June 27, 2008.