JAMAICA can grow its visitor earnings by some US$300 million (J$26.7 billion) were it to reduce fees for travellers in small private aircraft who avoid Jamaica in favour of cheaper destinations.

Short visits to Jamaica can cost private aircraft owners US$670 (J$59,600) or hundreds of US dollars more than regional neighbours according to pilot and entrepreneur Jim Parker who presented at the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (JCAA) seminar on Monday.

The result is that Jamaica is not a preferred destination by the over 60,000 private aircraft which travel from the US to the Caribbean annually, he said. Some 55,000 and 2,500 private flights go to Bahamas and Jamaica respectively. “And most of that number travelling to Jamaica are the business jets and not small private aircraft,” he added in his address to some 100 stakeholders at the Hilton Hotel in Kingston.

Parker has some 900 flight hours, most logged throughout the region, in his privately owned aircraft. In response to his travels he founded Caribbean Flying Adventure, a website that details the required fees, forms and navigation for Caribbean travel.

Parker’s comments are not directed at business jets whose owners are millionaires rather he said most of the potential revenues comes from middleclass propeller aircraft owners.

Single-engined propeller planes including the popular Cessna Skyhawk and Diamond Da20 can easily fly without refuelling the roughly 450 nautical mile (nm) (833 kilometres [km]) journey between Miami, US and Jamaica. The Skyhawk and Da20 have a range over 696 nm (1,289 km) and 547 nm (1013 km) respectively according to the manufacturers’ specifications.

Despite Jamaica earning US$1.8 billion from visitors who came on commercial aircraft in 2008 (with US$1 billion more from cruise ships); only “about US$2 million” was earned from visitors that “came on private aircraft”, Parker estimated, which translates into US$800 a visitor.

Bahamas conversely earned some US$280 million from visitors that came on small planes. Interestingly, the Bahamas waives landing, no tie down fees, overtime customers and immigration fees and transwire fees according to Bahamas government official data. There are, however, fees for departure, landing at private airstrips and multiengine aircraft landing charges each at US$15 or less.

Contrastingly, Parker said that the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica has a US$49 departure fee, a US$75 handling fee, US$150 terminal fee, US$55 parking fee, US$66 navigation fee. Parker then extrapolated that it would cost him “US$670” if he stayed in Jamaica for a few days.

“That is why you have so few coming,” he stated. “It can be even higher if you go to Negril and then back to Montego Bay. That would give you a US$900 bill.”

Fees are the number one drag but bureaucracy creates another barrier, he said.

“When I first came to Montego Bay it took me one hour and a half to leave the airport due to the many documents…,” he added. “Many of these documents offer the same information and can be eliminated.”

The seminar also had the Minister of Transport Michael Henry, who presented on plans to transform Vernon Field in May Pen into a Caribbean aerodrome hub capable of landing the largest cargo and commercial aeroplanes. He said that a feasibility study is currently underway but that the runway will “cost between US$3 to US$4 million” to construct. Other presenters included Dr Aloysius Tay Ban Hok, executive director of Singapore’s Association of Aerospace Industries; Leroy Lindsay director of Central Florida Trading Partners; and Earle Richards president of the Airport’s Authority of Jamaica.