Airline Arrivals Down to 15 Per Week Upon Reopening of P.G.I.A.
Ted Tejada
In order to reach the largest number of its membership, B.H.A. began its survey on June twelfth. The hotels, based on the results, are willing to take necessary measures to support and revive the economy through tourism. The number of flights, once the Philip Goldson International Airport is reopened has been significantly reduced to fifteen for the entire week, as opposed to a previous record of twenty-six on Saturday.
Ted Tejada, President, Belize Hotel Association
“What we did with the survey to make it effective, we sent it on Friday and we closed it yesterday so everybody that wanted and were able to vote needed to vote within that period of time.”
Reporter
“The reopening of the airport on August first is predicated on rapid tests. What will the hotels say if on August first those rapid tests are not available?”
Ted Tejada
“You know, we have been in contact with the airport where they are doing, at this moment they are doing great things in order to get the rapid tests going. We do want the economy to open. The hotels, as you saw on the survey, ninety-seven percent of them stipulated that yes, out of the sixty-five percent that voted that want the airport to open with the condition that the rapid test is there. We just don‘t want to open the hotels and the [airport] without having that rapid test. So we believe and we know that the government is making every effort at this moment to open it and to be honest, when we open we are looking at fifteen flights per week. You have to understand as well that it‘s not only the country of Belize that will say let‘s open the [airport] and everybody is going to be coming. The airlines have a lot of say on this. So American Airlines has stipulated that they are only going to be allowing one flight per day from Miami. Delta is going to be doing only three flights from the U.S. and Houston we‘re going to have five flights from United. In one time we use to have twenty-six flights on a given Saturday, we‘re looking at fifteen flights for the entire week.”
While the hoteliers want a re-opening of the P.G.I.A. on August first, that has still not been determined by the National Oversight Committee.
