Black Immigrant Daily News

Jamaica recorded 127 new COVID-19 cases over a 24-hour period up to Sunday afternoon.

There was no coronavirus-related death recorded for the one-day reporting period.

The overall coronavirus death toll in Jamaica remains at 3,207.

However, the separate deaths of four COVID-19 patients are under investigation by health officials.

There were 85 recoveries on the day, bringing that tally to 94,528.

The newly confirmed COVID-19 cases brought the total number on record for the island to 147,316.

Notably, the island recorded a 18.1 per cent positivity rate based on the samples that were tested on Sunday.

Of the newly confirmed cases, 75 are females and 52 are males, with ages ranging from nine days to 105 years.

The case count was made up of Kingston and St Andrew (37), St Catherine (34), St James (12), St Elizabeth (11), Clarendon (10), St Ann (seven), Westmoreland (five), Trelawny (four), Hanover (four), St Mary and (three).

There are 27 moderately ill patients, eight severely ill patients and seven critically patients among 1,307 active cases now under observation in Jamaica.

A total of 122 COVID-19 patients are now hospitalised locally.

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A Caribbean Airlines plane

EACH CAL flight between Tobago and Trinidad loses at least $40,800 even if it is filled, Ramesh Lutchmedial, retired director general of Civil Aviation, claimed in a statement on Monday, urging a new model of flight operations.

Saying the Tobago Business Chamber blamed the airbridge for CAL’s losses, he said while the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) has called for more flights, CAL has consistently lost millions of dollars.

“CAL and its predecessor BWIA rarely achieved profitability throughout their existence. requiring taxpayers’ support to the tune of billions of dollars to remain airborne.

“More recently, the covid19 pandemic negatively impacted CAL’s ability to achieve the objectives of its recovery business.”

Lutchmedial said while stakeholders like the chamber, THA and hoteliers have a right to clamour for more flights, serious underlying issues must be tackled.

“The airline industry is extraordinarily complex and requires lots of cash to meet capital and operating expenses.

“For every route, airlines determine the cost to produce a seat on the flight and the realistic passenger loads at which the revenues generated meet the cost of operating the flight. This is known as the break-even load factor, and loads in excess of the break-even load factors realise operating profits.”

He said the airbridge does not afford passengers the luxury of showing up at the airport at any time to board a flight.

“Airline flight schedules are structured based on passenger demand, travel patterns and convenient travel times to achieve the optimum load factors. Besides, flight operations, flight-crew duty times, maintenance and air-traffic procedures are stringently regulated by law to ensure that the highest levels of operational safety are achieved.

“Further, on the domestic airbridge, demand is not always constant or balanced. Demand is directional on certain days, such as Fridays to Tobago and on Sundays to Trinidad.

“This means that on the return legs, the load factors can be low, with lots of empty seats. A critical point to note is that airline seats are uniquely ‘perishable’ products.”

Lutchmedial argued that the government has a public-service duty to provide air transport linkages to support social and economic activities in Tobago.

“Most passengers who are domiciled in Tobago and use the airbridge for essential travel may not be able to afford the full economic fare.

“Therefore, the solution may well lie in a two-tier fare system, a subsidised fare for Tobago residents and an economic fare for non-residents.”

He said in 2017 a CAL official told a parliamentary select committee the present airbridge airfare of $300 had been fixed for over ten years and did not cover $600-$700 operating costs, even with a $100 government subsidy.

Lutchmedial said today the cost of providing a return passenger seat on the airbridge using an ATR-72 aircraft is about $1,000.

“With a $400 revenue for a trip, this results in an operating deficit of $600 per return seat, and $40,800 per return flight using a 68-seater ATR72-600 aircraft. Even if airbridge flights are operated at 100 per cent load factors, the revenue earned by airfare and subsidy is well below the economic cost of providing the service.”

He said CAL must receive the cost of providing the airbridge service through an appropriate means such as a subsidy.

While subsidising flights to Tobago was not new and had even included the THA paying millions to subsidise foreign airlines, mainly from Europe, for airlift to support its tourism industry, he said Corporation Sole has mandated CAL to achieve self-sufficiency.

Lutchmedial said CAL was walking a tightrope between Corporation Sole’s mandate to become self-sufficient (due to dwindling government revenues/support) and stakeholders’ demand for increased capacity on the airbridge, whose losses were due to high operating costs and low revenues.

Saying all airlines, private and state, previously operating the airbridge could not do so profitably, as costs exceeded revenues, Lutchmedial said the existing airbridge model had never worked.

“The solution to the airbridge problems requires creativity, such as crafting a new airbridge model that is in keeping with modern airline marketing principles and practices and inclusive of aircraft type, capacity, frequency, airfare and subsidies.

“This new model can be jointly developed by all the stakeholders, including Corporation Sole, CAL, THA, Tobago Business Chamber and the hoteliers.

“However, key elements of a new airbridge model such as airfares and subsidies require the approval of government, in whose court the airbridge ball sits.”

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Black Immigrant Daily News

…says Opposition only has problem with electoral list when they lose elections

President Dr Irfaan Ali has poured cold water on Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton’s threat that there would be “no elections” if the list of electors is not clean, pointing out that the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) only has a problem with the list when it does not win the elections.

During an interview on the sidelines of a recent event in Buxton, the President pointed out the trend. He noted that there was no outcry from the Opposition A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC), of which the PNCR is a major part, about a dirty list when it won the elections in 2015.

“First of all, I don’t know what he is referring to as a dirty list. This is the list that went to the elections in 2015, the list that brought him to Government. That’s the list that went to the 2011 elections that saw a minority Government. That’s the list that went to the 2020 election that saw a majority Government.”

“So, apparently this list is only a problem when you don’t win the elections. The list is not the problem… his inability to recognise democracy and… his inability to respect the will of the people is the problem. And he needs to fix that,” President Ali said.

President Dr Irfaan Ali

During a recent rally with his supporters, Norton had said that the party would not participate in an election where the list was not clean. He had also repeated a call he has previously made for the removal of Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Chair, Retired Justice Claudette Singh.

“We have to have a clean election list… every observer team that came here said we need a new list. We need a clean voters’ list… as part of this clean list campaign, we have to make it clear that Claudette Singh must go,” Norton told the crowd.

According to Norton, if his party does not get its way with a “clean” voters’ list, then it will do all in its power to prevent elections with a dirty list.

GECOM has already conducted a Continuous Registration Exercise in order to update the List of Electors and pave the way for the hosting of Local Government Elections (LGE). GECOM has said that this registration exercise is of crucial importance for first-time applicants – those persons who were 14 to 18 years old when they were registered during the 2019 House-to-House exercise.

Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton

It is also understood that GECOM is looking to have an updated voters’ list in place by October, in order for the Local Government Elections (LGE) to be held. The last time GECOM conducted Continuous Registration was in 2019, in preparation for the March 2020 General and Regional Elections.

More than $750 million has been set aside in Budget 2022 for the preparations to be undertaken by GECOM for the hosting of LGE this year. This money is part of an overall $4.1 billion allocation to GECOM’s in Budget 2022, and was examined and approved by the National Assembly during its consideration of the 2022 Budget Estimates.

Included in the $783 million for LGE is a more-than-$300 million increase in “other goods and services purchased”, which jumped from $250.8 million in 2021 to $575.9 million in the 2022 budget.

LGE are constitutionally due every two years in Guyana and were last held in 2018. However, given the fiasco that played out following the 2020 General and Regional Elections, the Local Government polls were deferred to 2021.

At the last LGE in November 2018, the then People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Opposition had secured 52 of the 80 Local Authority Areas (LAAs). This followed the holding of the LGE in 2016, during which the PPP/C also claimed the majority of the LAAs.

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