AIRLIFT FROM AFRICA COULD START BY MID 2023; PLANS ADVANCED SAYS COMISSIONG
By Marlon Madden
If all goes according to plan, Bridgetown could welcome its first direct flight from the African continent by the middle of this year.
Word of this has come from David Comissiong, Barbados’ ambassador to the Association of Caribbean States and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), who indicated that negotiations were at an advanced stage between the African Export-Import (Afrexim) Bank and Africa-based airline partners.
“We finally have an African partner of real substance and of real resources, and of course I am referring to the African Export-Import Bank. That is a 30-year-old institution, that is a multi-billion-dollar institution. By our standard, the Africa Export-Import Bank is a giant institution and they are partnering with us. So they are the ones who are right now carrying out the discussions and negotiations with the African airlines,” he said.
He disclosed that the negotiations between the Nigeria-based airline Air Peace was the most promising at this stage.
Air Peace, which boasts of having one of the lowest fares in Nigeria, was started in 2013 by lawyer and businessman Allen Onyema. The airline currently offers flights to more than a dozen destinations.
“They [Afrexim Bank officials] have said to us that the discussions with Air Peace, a Nigerian airline, are extremely promising and what we are looking towards is a twice-weekly flight between Lagos and Barbados,” he said.
“So nothing is definite yet but I am very impressed with the seriousness with which the African Export-Import Bank does anything they put their hands to. And if they tell us that it looks promising I am confident that flight is going to materialise … in the first half of this year,” said Comissiong.
He was speaking with members of the media on the sidelines of the Ghana 66th anniversary celebrations put on by the Ghana Association of Barbados on the grounds of Ilaro Court on Monday.
Comissiong said once that flight starts, he was expecting to see traffic from Barbados and Ghana and vice versa.
“Once we can get on that plane at the Grantley Adams [International] Airport and fly across the Atlantic to Lagos that is just a short journey from Lagos to Accra and Accra to Ghana,” he said.
“It is a beautiful thing to see unfolding, this relationship between Barbados and Africa, the Caribbean and Africa. Very soon from now the Africa Export-Import Bank is going to be setting up their headquarters right here in Barbados,” he added. He recalled that the US$1.5 billion the bank approved last December, the financing of trade and investment between CARICOM and Africa.
“So we are on our way. Africa is the new frontier for us. We are reconnecting with our brothers and sisters and Ghana holds a very special place for us in this relationship,” said Comissiong.
(marlonmadden@barbadostoday.bb)
