Tourism Reliant Caribbean wary about ongoing Jet Fuel Crisis

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]But I mean even with all of that, you read I read in the news again and I'm saying that to say that it's not coming from any formal source, that you know some of these oil companies are still making record profits of of on the back on the back of this crisis. But in the sense of the region, you know, and of the Americas, most of the American carriers, from my understanding, I mean, because we're not so reliant on the Gulf states to get for our gas, for all of that our gas, we could get it, [music] you know, it doesn't affect the network, the US networks or American networks, Canadian networks as much. Um what you may see is that if this crisis continues, and if diesel fuel becomes starts drying up in Europe, right? I think right now, from what I was from what I understand, they have about 30 days left um for the current stock. If that goes away, then you have a much bigger global crisis, right?

[00:00:50]Because now everything is shutting down, not even aviation, but just travel across the board.

[00:00:59]>> [music] >> And folks, welcome back to this week's edition of the Bob Report, and I see Anthony Howard is chiming in on our editorial of the week. You were saying two wrongs don't make it right.

[00:01:11]Government come, government go, and squatters continue to appear to have more rights than landowners. No one is disputing that. I think you I'm not sure if you've missed the point. I hope you didn't. The point is that law must be applied equally across the board. And these developers were breaking the law as well. In the context or or at least the PDA is allowing them to do it, at least. So, we we will get on to the first segment, folks. Now, despite the possibility of increased demand for flights into the Caribbean region, the Caribbean Tourism Organization chairman, Ian Goodall, Edgehill, is warning that the current spike in jet fuel prices could seriously impact tourism.

[00:01:53]Now, jet fuel prices across the globe have surged due to America's and Israel's war of aggression against Iran, an illegal and unconstitutional war that has not received congressional approval as mandated by the US Constitution.

[00:02:10]Now, as a result of this war of aggression, it has doubled airlines fuel bills, forcing them to increase ticket prices, cut routes and capacity, and introduce fuel surcharges in some instances.

[00:02:25]Regional airlines in the Caribbean have not been spared.

[00:02:29]The St. Martin-based Winair is reportedly weighing the introduction of a fuel surcharge after its fuel bill almost doubled from 550,000 US dollars in February to nearly 900,000 US dollars in March.

[00:02:48]Trinidad and Tobago-based carrier Caribbean Airlines introduced a $15 to $25 surcharge per sector on April 10th of this year.

[00:03:01]Describing the situation as challenging, Gooding Edghill told Guardian Media that despite it being early days, the organization continues to monitor these developments.

[00:03:13]He said, quote, "We don't have enough information at this point because you would appreciate that there are customers who would have booked, so they in the in in the forward booking sphere.

[00:03:25]We have to monitor the forward bookings as a region, and certainly Barbados is doing that to see what knock-on impact, if any, it is likely to have." Unquote.

[00:03:36]Now, joining us to make sense of these impacts on travel and tourism in Grenada is Mr. Randall Dolland, who is the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Grenada Tourism Authority. And of course, he wears some other hats that we'll be having conversations on. Um Mr. Dollond, welcome, sir, to this week's edition of The Morning Brew. It's always a pleasure having you here, sir.

[00:04:00]It's always a pleasure to be here uh to be invited back to the show to again speak about this matter. And again, special good morning to all of your viewers, listeners in Grenada and in the diaspora.

[00:04:12]Yes, yes, absolutely. Mr. Dollond, very turbulent times. Of course, excuse the pun here, turbulence in the context of of of flying, right?

[00:04:21]Uh but let us let us talk about uh the the current state of play with respect to airlift in Grenada. Uh a cautionary checker, for example, and we know that Carnival prices traditionally with with with uh air travel out of, you know, North America and Europe, they tend to be high. But this I did a comparison side-by-side comparison with last year's fares, airfares, and these seem to be 20 to 30% higher. Significantly and and growing. So, let us talk about the current state of play.

[00:04:54]Um Are we seeing a situation where folks are or at least the airlines are saying to you that folks are not booking as as as they usually would, especially for summer travel, excluding Carnival here, summer travel in general.

[00:05:11]Uh you know, are you seeing a situation where airlines are saying that the seats are not filling up as as they normally do?

[00:05:18]Uh what is happening?

[00:05:20]Well, I would say that to start with, you know, the Grenada is actually experiencing a surge of visitors [snorts] coming into the destination.

[00:05:29]We're up 14% year-on-year from last year, 14%.

[00:05:34]I trend ahead in terms of still long-stay visitors' arrivals. That's mostly visitors coming in and on staying at the hotels. So, we are pacing at record or a record-breaking number right now. That compared to last year, last year we've closed the year at 8% up in total visitor arrivals and this year again we know we're doing tremendously tremendously better.

[00:05:56]The issue with jet fuel obviously is that it affects the pockets, right? It affects the pockets of the traveler and airlines obviously are now trying to see how they can um recover and keeps keep the flights um keep the flights in the air and ensure that visitors are still pushed towards the destination wanting to book a holiday or in this case like Spicemas they want to book a festival.

[00:06:18]We have to sort of assess if demand outweighs price.

[00:06:22]And a lot of what you see with a surge in pricing for Spicemas is simply based on demand.

[00:06:27]We know that we don't have any rooms on the in the in Grenada and all the flights are full. You is almost impossible to get to Grenada. So even before the fuel surcharge believe that airlines were looking at protecting their yields and ensuring that you know when they look at the overall performance of the route then their airport planning team is showing that Grenada is actually yielding um ahead year on year usually um and they saw that trying to see that opportunity in Spicemas where simply they are hedging their bets that the seat demand for the festival would actually outweigh the more excessive costs of the ticket. We have been speaking to them about that up to just last week.

[00:07:07]We've been speaking to them about about the pricing for Spicemas.

[00:07:10]But now with this uh crisis with the fuel prices where fuel has now risen almost 100%.

[00:07:17]They're just saying that right now they're just trying to just cut their losses in some instances um and that's for the total route performance. We know traditionally in the months sort of like the low season in June, September >> [snorts] >> it's usually the cheapest time to fly to Grenada.

[00:07:32]And and then you go up and it spike the spikes in August for Spicemas those first 2 weeks and then of course it goes up again in December to do the festive season into the new years and then through April when there's a high season, the highest demand for seat capacity into the region. So, that's a typical trend across the board. But, this is why, you know, we are now furthering engaging and seeing what else we can do to ensure that we keep the demand for SpiceMas up while the airlines try to figure out how they cope with the jet fuel prices at this point and we're seeing that they're taking action in sort of some dynamic pricing, in some additions to bag fees, and even reducing some snacks to the destination.

[00:08:13]They're rolling back benefits to some of their premium loyal loyalty loyal customers in their loyalty programs. We're seeing all of that happen and that's and that's happening globally right now because the the fuel crisis, right? It's it's hurting pockets everywhere.

[00:08:29]Mhm.

[00:08:30]Yeah.

[00:08:31]Now now it it it it absolutely is. Now, and you know, the news is is saying that especially in the context of Europe, we've seen the lots of summer cancellations, you know, Lufthansa.

[00:08:46]Uh none of the airlines listed, you know, um well, are are in continental Europe. I have not seen any cancellations in the context of British Airways and and other um other European airlines that that that come to Grenada, Virgin as well. Um but let us talk about those summer cancellations, especially in the context of a European travel. Uh have any of our airlines who service any of these airlines that service the destination into Grenada uh are indicating that they will be uh canceling flights to to Grenada and the Caribbean in the summer?

[00:09:23]Well, at this point I can speak for Grenada and and I can speak only at this time. The answer is no.

[00:09:29]And when you look at the global flight cancellations, it really amounts to about 1% right now, currently. Okay.

[00:09:35]Right? And what you're seeing is a lot of route consolidation.

[00:09:38]Um and also you're seeing some reduction in smaller markets where the the lift capacity is probably less than 40% in some instances. Right? So, you saw Delta cut some some routes in the United States. Lufthansa is cutting some routes. Even Air Canada cut certain flights to JFK. I don't even think that's the flight into JFK anymore.

[00:09:54]>> Which which which which is a which was a curiosity to me because that is such a short route. So, I was very surprised that that that was cut. But, you know >> Because what you're looking at right now in the airline sector is about route consolidation.

[00:10:08]Mhm. So, if you're flying eight times into LaGuardia, for example, you don't need to fly the extra three flights into JFK, especially if the demand is not that great. If your yields are not great. And that's what the airlines care about are their yields.

[00:10:20]Right? Not even so much the capacity, but their yields.

[00:10:22]But, at the same time, if you're even to just consolidate all your your traffic into LaGuardia, you can save money by by taking off the extra routes on onto JFK.

[00:10:33]So, what you're seeing is a lot of reducing losing of fluff in the markets.

[00:10:37]Same thing with Lufthansa. Some of the routes were just not that great and not that profitable. So, there's an opportunity to just cut some of those routes out. You will see that in a lot of developmental routes that, you know, airlines are no longer going to take the risk of, you know, seeding a route and, you know, while you're trying to get it up and running.

[00:10:53]If you do not have support from the local government in terms of concessions, etc., then they just pull the route and then they'll try to redevelop it when this whole thing settles.

[00:11:03]In terms of Grenada, we have um the direct lift from JetBlue and American Airlines, which is daily. And then you have Delta right now in the in the summer running um every Saturday. Air Canada flies twice a week. We are looking at the loads and the loads remain healthy for these routes right now and we are, you know, again speaking to airlines about their yields. But, I will tell you, for example, that, you know, I am a loyalty member on JetBlue and I had to start paying for my my second bag. Right? Normally, they're like, "Well, you get bags, you know, um two bags free, for example, because of my status.

[00:11:36]They're like, no, actually when to the airport I was shocked. It was one bag free, 70 US dollars for the bag. In some instances now you see all the bag fees starting to go up because this is how they're now trying to um ensure that the prices don't completely spike for the jet fuel. Um and especially now that you have customers who have bought in advance locked in, you kind of suddenly just drop a fuel surcharge on them. You see that in certain um jurisdictions there's there's laws to protect uh customers from that that you cannot just increase the fare overnight or add surcharges overnight, so they will be coming in on new tickets that um from >> [clears throat] >> from clients that are now booking these flights.

[00:12:13]But right now we are um assessing the demand for the destination and the load factors currently, as we speak today, are still looking pretty healthy. The airlines are we're not at this point at any risk of things cutting back um in terms of losing any capacity at this time. But of course, you know, with the situation remaining very fluid in the Middle East, we'll continue to monitor it, but I too would be very surprised if we do end up to a situation where we are losing lift um from the region because the region is still um commanding strong demand, especially from the Canadian market, who are not traveling into North America.

[00:12:48]And what I thought was very interesting was the fact that Air Canada cut the JFK flights at this point with the start of the World Cup.

[00:12:56]So, we're seeing again just um the where demand is now shifting.

[00:13:02]Uh the region and Grenada is benefiting from Canadian business, which has surged uh this last season. And at this point we're not seeing any threat of uh any sort of route cancellations or flight cancellations at this point.

[00:13:18]Now, uh what is happening at uh uh an intraregional travel level? Again, in the intro I articulated uh the fuel surcharge that uh Caribbean Airlines has imposed when air did the same thing and we know that Caribbean intra regional travel despite the fact that we do have many players in the market now has been notoriously difficult for a myriad of reasons including cost right so in the context of intra regional travel because you know we talk about the North American market but Liat has been able to attract our regional counterparts especially for Spice Mart what is that looking like?

[00:14:03]I mean at this at this point you know I would just like to say that we we enjoy working with our inter regional partners like inter Caribbean Liat very [snorts] communicative they get on the phone with us they they always talk through things at this point they're assessing you know how they're able to maintain proper service reliable service while managing this fuel prices right now you understand again Cal media announcement about their surcharge coming up inter Caribbean and Liat we we spoke to them we spoke to Liat just up to last week and they were and we're actually trying to find new routes with Liat right now right we're actually going to be adding a Guyana service with Liat at some point but at this point they're still looking at load factors they're still trying to drive demand the Caribbean actually has um sometimes interchanges with the United Kingdom as the for second place in most visitors taking on third place with the United States of course leading that with about 54% in terms of total arrivals to the destination but you know regionally we're still sort of discussing with them still trying to work along with them to see you know how we could you know continue to drive demand which is the most important thing if you continue to drive demand more people on the seats it's a lot easier to then hedge against the the because you know you have better occupancy and with better use on the aircraft, you are able to obviously make more money. You don't want to be flying half empty flights especially right now and especially all the budget carriers as you saw it for example with Spirit, they go down immediately because those planes have to be full to make money.

[00:15:36]They must be flying at 100% to make money. So now we are uh doubling down on marketing initiatives, doubling down on you know, getting more people to come to to Grenada um throughout the region. We are seeing still good loads um from some of these carriers and we will continue to work with them to ensure that the demand stays healthy and we will continue to assess the situation. The The good thing is that we're not running into a crisis where like Europe who really need most they get most of their fuel from the Middle East, their aviation their avgas. That's aviation fuel. In the region, we get a lot of it from like distribution centers primarily out of Trinidad which come from other locations. So there's not a sudden strain immediately on even availability of fuel right now.

[00:16:23]But at the same time, I mean the cost the cost is impacting everyone and our regional [snorts] partners are trying to see the how best we could just focus on driving demand, driving capacity um and we will continue to have further conversations on if surcharges do have to come in place. But right now as of today, that has not been the case.

[00:16:41]Mhm. That has not been the case in in the context of And and and I was actually >> to preface Yes, go ahead. I also have to say today.

[00:16:50]Right? Because things can change at any point. Yeah. Yes, [snorts] it's it's it's it's actually very fluid and dynamic. But but it's good to know about the in in in respect of how where we access that jet fuel. You said it comes from Trinidad and Tobago.

[00:17:07]Usually yes, it comes from our distribution centers around the Caribbean. We consolidate it and then it gets distributed to the islands.

[00:17:13]We don't We're not as reliant as on the Middle East as Europe.

[00:17:17]Or right.

[00:17:19]Or Asia as well, which which has That's correct. Or Asia. That's correct. right.

[00:17:22]So, okay. So, in the context of that jet fuel supply supply chain, it seems to be localized to our area. Okay. Well, well, that's It is in that in that sense because it comes from the I would say from the Americas region. Um I mean, at the end of the day, uh the Middle East provides 30 to 35% of the global crude oil.

[00:17:43]Right?

[00:17:44]So, with that issue there in the Middle East, you know, and they're they're looking now at, you know, going around the Strait of Hormuz. Like, for example, Saudi has the East-West pipeline.

[00:17:52]Uh you know, um the UAE has the Fujairah pipeline that goes into the Gulf of Oman, and Iraq is sending their oil into Turkey using alternative routes, right?

[00:18:00]So, there's a sort of a reduction on the stress of uh the Strait of Hormuz. And even when that's cleared up, it still may take 6 months to get all of that regular sorted and, you know, um back on stream where we can see prices start regularizing. But I mean, even with all of that, you read I read in the news again, and I'm saying that to say that it doesn't come from any formal source, that you know, some of these oil companies are still making record profits of of on the back on the back of this crisis. But in the sense of the region, you know, um and the Americas, most of the American carriers, from my understanding, I mean, because we're not so reliant on the Gulf states to get for avgas for all of that avgas, we can get it, you know, it's it doesn't affect the network, the US networks or American networks, Canadian networks as much. Um what you may see that if this crisis continues, and if you see a fuel becomes starts drying up in Europe, right? I think right now, from what I would from what I understand, they have about 30 days left.

[00:19:00]Um for the current stock. If that goes away, then you have a much bigger global crisis, right? Because now everything is shutting down, not even aviation, but just travel across the board. And then you will see that it would affect it would affect the likes of Virgin and British Airways.

[00:19:16]But I think at that point we're dealing with a much larger global crisis. Yeah.

[00:19:21]Mhm.

[00:19:22]Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And and and that is my especially in the context of the the Europe the the England and and Germany routes. That that's something that has been uppermost in my mind given that they're saying, you know, they will they will be running out of supply.

[00:19:37]Uh I believe someone here is saying uh what arrangements have you made for cancellations to Grenada during Spicemas? I mean, what can you do if the airlines suddenly start canceling?

[00:19:50]>> [laughter] >> I mean, that would be if the airlines are canceling for Spicemas >> Well, well, you have you have no control over I mean, they don't have control >> over that. Yeah. But I would only say that because the airlines I mean, at an at an instance that, you know, the tourism authority, Spicemas corporate and their credit, you know, civil aviation in Grenada. We've been reaching out to the airlines and saying, "Hey, tickets are a little bit exorbitant. Cut it back."

[00:20:15]If the airlines are actually now canceling for Spicemas it means that now the cost of override demand.

[00:20:24]Mhm.

[00:20:25]And if it's override demand that by that much and they have to get to the point where they're canceling, then you know it's serious. And if they're going to cancel at Spicemas at that point, then you probably know we're going to lose it for September and October.

[00:20:36]Mhm.

[00:20:37]Because those ticket prices exceed that, right? Our summer demand prices are better than it is usually in September and October.

[00:20:44]And even like, you know, the fact that we're pushing that Grenada homecoming, we want to get all our Grenadians back in because usually the prices in June are very low. This June and September are the cheapest to travel to the region.

[00:20:55]Generally speaking.

[00:20:57]So, even like when we're pushing the homecoming, we want to get more demand, more capacity on the route where uh visitors are flying to Grenada and coming in and I'm the destination by, you know, spending money and and and, you know, doing business and networking while while here.

[00:21:12]I'm just giving a quick plug for homecoming as you if you didn't know this. Yeah, we know we actually we know >> [laughter] >> Yeah, but outside of that I think that, you know, it's Yeah, if you're looking at cancellations at Spice Mas period to answer the question more directly then we have bigger issues and I think that we also have to be mindful that if the ticket if it's gotten to that level of a crisis, I mean, we're talking about just inflation across the board that affects the cost of food.

[00:21:35]Right? The cost of everything. Of every single thing. So, even travel at that point may not even be on your, you know, a priority. Because at this point you're trying to feed yourself and your family.

[00:21:45]You're barely trying to even put your foot gas to go across town.

[00:21:48]It's it's it's survival. Yeah, it's it absolutely is.

[00:21:52]Uh Steve Duncan, uh brother Duncan, good morning. Great great seeing you. Great reviews on on Reggae Fest, by the way.

[00:21:58]He's saying, "Will there be additional flights for Reggae Fest 2027?"

[00:22:02]Well, I don't I'm happy that Steve brought it up because I mean that's something that we need to talk about is collaborating a lot bigger capacity to drive demand. We always want to see more demand coming into the destination. Steve did a wonderful job on Reggae Fest, so congratulations to him and his team for pulling off a wonderful event. But ultimately, we want to grow demand into the destination.

[00:22:20]It's part of the role of the Tourism Authority and we need to speak with Steve to see how we can scale this event um and make it um make it more attractive to them to justify adding more capacity to the I mean, based on what I saw the Maurice Bishop International Airport with with outgoing passengers following Reggae Fest, I mean, you know, the line to to to clear immigration was around the corner. I never saw that at the Maurice Bishop International Airport. So, I think that anecdotally speaking, that would be good reason enough Yeah, I mean, I think that's and the and the MBA they've been working um they're working hard on that one, you know, because they they they understand the concerns. We understand the bottlenecks. We have to now put things in place to solve to solve that.

[00:23:07]You know, because we have high peaks, you know, when all the flights are arriving and leaving at the same time.

[00:23:12]And I will just take this opportunity to explain why that happens, right? Because that's for these airlines to make their global network connections.

[00:23:19]Right? So, all the flights have to consolidate into Miami at a specific time. All the flights have to consolidate into Atlanta at a specific time. And other destinations, so they can make onward connections. So, it's a typical issue in most of the region because, I mean, the flights come in, they turn and fly back. They they have a specific window in which to do so. Cuz you know, a flight is off by an hour, you have a ton of passengers who are unable to make connections. So, we do have to be able to um handle the volume at specific times you know, at the airport. Um and you know, the GAA, the um plane the airports authority, I kudos to them for, you know, trying to know deal with this matter. And and we need to fix this issue.