“Our overall goal is to provide on time performance and to get people to where they need to get to, whether it is for leisure or for business. Sunrise Airways is trying to facilitate smooth and easy transportation across the region and it’s our goal to do so,” explained Sunrise Airways’s representative in Saint Lucia, Collin Poppin as the air carrier prepares for a heavy 2025 summer.
Regional travel has been a nagging concern for Caribbean residents as the cost of airfares and local airport development taxes create less-than-attractive prices. To compound this situation are frequent flight delays and cancellations as existing carriers do not have the capacity to meet the flight demands within the region.
A constant headache for regional travellers is the cost of travel. Airfares coupled with taxes imposed by governments results in extremely expensive flight costs across the board.
Poppin, like many others, has suggested that lower local taxes could fuel air traffic within the region: “We believe that if the taxes and fees are reduced, it will increase the volume of people travelling and so there will be more economic activity happening within the region.”
Available statistics tend to agree with the suggestion that lower taxes would promote regional travel. A 2018 working paper prepared by the Caribbean Development Bank, entitled, “Air Competitiveness and Connectivity in the Caribbean”, suggests that high travel costs reduce air travel: “This inbuilt disadvantage may be further distorted by taxes, fees and charges that further increase the cost of travel. Where these are passed on to passengers, demand for air travel and, therefore, connectivity, will be further reduced,” the CDB document said.
Despite these factors, Poppin noted that airlines will abide by the financial stipulations of servicing countries. “But we all have to operate within the confines of what it is. So we understand each individual’s government approach,” he said.
Sunrise Airways, he adds, is an airline of adaptation. Poppin explained that the airline partners with other carriers to assist flyers in arriving at destinations not serviced by them.
“One of our approaches is to interline, which means that we work with other airlines. So, for example, if you want to go to Tortola from St. Lucia, Sunrise can get you to Antigua, but maybe we partner with another airline to get you from Antigua to Tortola, and that is happening,” he explained.
Summertime in the Caribbean is known for its intra regional travel and island-hopping by residents. To cater to this, Poppin says a schedule will be devised to meet residents’ travel demands.
