HEAD of the Presidential Secretariat Dr Roger Luncheon said Cabinet is unhappy with the cost of international airfare for travelling from Guyana, and the Administration would be meeting with the airline carriers, including and especially Caribbean Airlines, to express its concerns about Guyana’s unfair treatment in its fare structure.

Luncheon made this disclosure at his weekly post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday at the Office of the President, Shiv Chanderpaul Drive, Georgetown.

Cabinet met last Tuesday and the HPS said: “It was pointed out at Cabinet that Caribbean Airlines would have grave difficulties in explaining how the cost of an airfare from Trinidad to JFK in New York could compare so unfavourably with the airfare from Georgetown to New York or even Georgetown to Trinidad,” Dr Luncheon stated.

Luncheon said Cabinet was advised by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds that he has summoned the executives of the airlines for an engagement on clarifying this matter.

Referring to questions about other airlines operating here being involved in the discussions, the HPS replied, “I think the interest of Cabinet about the unfair treatment of Guyana in the fare structure…it extends beyond Caribbean Airlines.”

“The impression that I have gotten, sitting at Cabinet, is that wherever there is evidence of the unfair treatment of Guyana in the fare structure, that the Prime Minister – the Minister responsible for Transport and Hydraulics, would be meeting,” he explained.

Luncheon, however, added that the “first of these engagements would be with Caribbean Airlines.” (Priya Nauth)