TOBAGO Hotel and Tourism Association (THTA) president Reginald Mac Lean says subsidies should be removed from most Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) flights on the domestic route to facilitate greater efficiency on the airbridge.

He said removing the subsidy would be a way to address CAL's existing booking system, which, he believes, is 'damaging Tobago.'

Mac Lean, who was elected THTA president at the organisation's AGM on April 8, used the $50 fee to change airline tickets as an example.

He told Newsday on May 17, 'It stems from people blocking flights and the $50 change fee is not conducive to what happens. If you are a no-show for a flight, all it costs you is $50 to change the flight and that no-show could be for you, your wife and three children. So that is five seats you just blocked up that somebody coming to Tobago would have taken a room, a hotel, a guesthouse, a bed and breakfast and you messed that up.

'They need to put in a system where, if you don't cancel your flight within 48 hours, your ticket becomes zero. It cannot be used again.'

Mac Lean claimed that Trinidadians who are unable to fly to Tobago or vice versa, at any given time, cannot even go online to cancel the booking to Tobago.

'It is almost impossible to cancel a flight. So again, seats are being tied up because people are not willing to make these changes.'

To address the issue, he said, subsidies should be removed from most of the flights.

'I know we have the elderly, we have the infirmed and that argument is always made. But we can subsidise a few flights. We can't subsidise all of the flights.

'If the reality is that the ticket needs to be TT$600, let it be TT$600 because at the end of the day, the whole ferry service is subsidised. So why tie up the seats on a plane when you have seats on a ferry? So subsidise one or the other.'

Mac Lean said many people believe the subsidy should be kept.

'But that's not true. You want to fix tourism, let's start fixing those things.'

Commenting on Tobago's tourism sector, he said that while there is significant domestic tourism taking place, it must work in tandem with international tourism.

'We need both. At the end of the day, domestic tourism has to also fills a gap in the different seasons that we get, especially during May-June and September, October, and November.

'What is happening now is that you don't have very many international flights into Tobago. So we have to rely almost solely on domestic tourism.'

But Mac Lean said travelling between the islands can be challenging for many people.

'When there are long weekends, there is nothing on the ferry and nothing on the airline and when they (CAL) go to put flights back on, the special flights are being put on too late.'

He said since covid19 (2020-2021), Tobago has not got back the number of flights it had to and from the island before the pandemic.

'Tourism for Trinidad and Tobago is a way of getting much-needed foreign exchange back into the country. As a country, we need to grow up and accept tourism.'

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