NEWS SPECIAL REPORT


British Airways, sponsor of this Caribbean themed edition, reports a strong year to the region. Colm Lacy, BA’s commercial head at Gatwick, spoke to Ian Taylor


Colm Lacy: ‘The trade is really important to us’


BA welcomes take-off in dem


British Airways added almost 11,000 seats to the Caribbean this summer and filled them all thanks in no small part to the trade.


Colm Lacy, the airline’s commercial head at Gatwick, said: “We’re really pleased. We put in 13% more seats this summer – we filled that and then some, so we improved our load factor.” He added: “We’ve improved load


factors by 10 percentage points [to the Caribbean] since 2011.” This summer’s growth followed


a strong 2014 when BA added a 10th Boeing 777 to its long-haul fleet at Gatwick, from where most of its Caribbean services fly. Go back to 2013 and the carrier


was switching capacity away from the region to the US, owing partly to the high price of fuel and high rate of Air Passenger Duty (APD) to the Caribbean.


Lacy hailed the turnaround, attributing it to a combination of attractive fares and promotions, reduced rates of APD this summer and support from trade partners. The additional seats came primarily from bigger economy cabins.


“All we need is for it to keep raining [in UK] and it will get better still for the Caribbean”


He said: “We work with hotels,


tourist boards and the trade. From April, APD has been lower and our fares have been lower and we’ve made sure we have really attractive fares. We have a sale on now with the lead-in fare to Antigua at £447 return.” The comparable fare a year ago was


£475 and Lacy said: “The sale fare for the same period in 2011 was £509 return, so four years later it is 12% cheaper – not many things in life have come down in price. “We keep putting in seats and


filling them, so the hoteliers are happy, the tourist boards are happy and we can do more marketing. Everyone benefits. “It’s an encouraging time to


be working with the Caribbean. Our trade partners have all been growing. All we need is for it to keep raining [in Britain] and it will keep getting better for the Caribbean.”


Changes in APD to the Caribbean Rate per UK departure


Economy (‘reduced rate’) Premium (‘standard rate’)*


2014 £85


£170 £142 APD reduction


The improvement in the UK economy since the low point of 2009-11 is an obvious factor; the re-banding of APD to the Caribbean from April this year is another. Years of lobbying and protest


2015 (from April 1) 2016 (from April 1) £71


£73 £146


Cost for family of 4 with 2 children under 12 (or under 16 from March 2016) 2014


Economy (‘reduced rate’) Premium (‘standard rate’)*


£340 £142 £680 £284


2015 (from May 1) 2016 (from March 1) £146 £292


*Standard rate applies to seats with 40-inch pitch or more or “with different standards of comfort, service, privacy or amenities” (Treasury).


finally saw the UK Treasury switch from a four-band to a two-band APD structure, reducing rates a little to many long-haul destinations. More importantly, it put the Caribbean on a par with the US, to which the region had lost traffic from the UK while rates were punishingly high. The removal of APD on children under-12 from May this year will also have helped, with the exemption to be extended to under-16s from next March (see box). Lacy said: “If prices go down, demand goes up. We’ve definitely seen that, and if prices go down in future we expect to see demand go up further.” Has the reduction in APD made


the Caribbean more attractive? “It certainly makes the Caribbean more competitive. But APD really needs to go, and not just for children. It’s still the highest air tax in the world. As International


14 travelweekly.co.uk 10 September 2015


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