Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush recently questioned whether the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism had spent money to help a foreign airline launch a new route to Grand Cayman.
Tourism Minister Charles Clifford said the government never provided a cash subsidy to Spirit Airlines, which runs a flight from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Grand Cayman with varying frequency.
However, Mr. Clifford said DOT along with various local hotels and resorts helped develop a marketing and promotions agreement with Spirit, which was valued at US$300,000, between December 2005 and December 2006.
That promotional arrangement did start before Spirit began sending flights here in February 2006, and Mr. Clifford said it’s an arrangement which has been made between Cayman and foreign airlines in the past.
‘The majority of the $300,000 is essentially in advertising value,’ Mr. Clifford said. ‘These were funds that would have been spent promoting the Cayman Islands anyway.
‘This makes sense because it benefits the destination as a whole.’
The tourism minister also pointed out that US$2.5 million was spent in Cayman Islands advertising and on promotions that featured Cayman Airways during the same time.
Mr. Bush, a former tourism minister, agreed such arrangements had been made previously. However, he said in markets where Cayman Airways was competing with another carrier government has been ‘very careful’ about such support.
‘Cayman Airways was doing a route, and now they pulled Cayman Airways out,’ Mr. Bush said. ‘I wanted to see what connection there was, and I believe there was.’
Earlier this year Cayman’s national airline pulled out of the Fort Lauderdale market after its Chief Executive Officer Patrick Strasburger said the market to support the flights just wasn’t there. Mr. Strasburger also said at the time Fort Lauderdale was competing with the Miami airport, which is Cayman Airways’ prime US destination.
Mr. Bush took a different view.
‘I think they coaxed or encouraged Spirit in and dropped Cayman Airways,’ Mr. Bush said. ‘They would say it was good business practice, but a lot of what they’re doing these days doesn’t make sense.’
The Fort Lauderdale route was discontinued after 4 May. A few months later the Caymanian Compass reported that Spirit Airlines would cut down the number of flights on its Grand Cayman-Fort Lauderdale route (‘Spirit plans reduction in flights’ 22 August).
A Spirit spokesperson said the reduction in flights was due to the onset of hurricane season and reduced demand. But the airline couldn’t say how many, if any of the flights, it would bring back.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Clifford have recently engaged in a few highly-publicised clashes over Cayman Airways. Mr. Bush has accused the national airline of price-gouging in the days leading up to Hurricane Dean last month. Mr. Clifford has discounted such statements as attempts to ‘score political points.’
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