Category Archives: Transportation

Jamaica and Cayman Islands Turn Away Cruise Ship Amid Coronavirus Fear

February 26, 2020 – 3:02 pm

MSC Meraviglia

(Caribbean 360)  KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday February 26, 2020 – As the Caribbean seeks to keep the deadly new Coronavirus (COVID-19) at bay, a cruise ship carrying more than 4,500 passengers was denied entry to Jamaica yesterday and the Cayman Islands today, after it was discovered that a crew member had flu symptoms.

The MSC Meraviglia, carrying over 4,500 passengers and more than 1,600 crew members on a Caribbean cruise, was first denied entry to the port in Ocho Rios when it arrived at 8:30 a.m. yesterday.

Jamaica’s Ministry of Health and Wellness said that during an inspection, port health officials learned that the sick crew member was in insolation on the vessel.                  Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Health / Environment, Medical, Personalities, Tourism / Entertainment | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

TRAVEL – TOURISM: The coronavirus will hit the tourism and travel sector hard

February 19, 2020 – 12:16 am

Professor, Law and Economics of Tourism, University of Guelph

China’s tourism sector has been devastated by the latest coronavirus outbreak, but the impact is being felt around the world and in many industries

The spread of infectious diseases is invariably linked to travel. Today, tourism is a huge global business that accounts for 10.4 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 10 per cent of global employment.

Nothing seems to slow its growth as year-over-year increases outpace the economy. The United Nations World Tourism Organization is predicting further growth of three per cent to four per cent in international tourist arrivals for 2020, with international departures worldwide particularly strong in the first quarter of this year.

But that was before a new coronavirus (formally known as 2019-nCoV) hit China and then very rapidly started spreading to the rest of the world with 20 countries and counting isolating cases.              Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Associations, Economics/Finance, Education, finance and trade, Health / Environment, International News, Medical, Personalities, Politics, Tourism / Entertainment | Tagged , | Comments (0)

TRAVEL: There’s a huge fight over reclining your airline seat. Is capitalism to blame?

February 17, 2020 – 12:36 am

Recline or don’t recline – it’s your call, but the greed of airlines in shrinking space to reap profits makes them the true villains

Recline or not to recline? In the face of such cramped conditions, it’s no wonder people are nipping at each other’s throats.
 Recline or not to recline? In the face of such cramped conditions.

Ariveting piece of cinema has captured the world’s attention, sparking endless debate about the perils of life under capitalism. No, not Parasite, but a 30-second video of an altercation on an airplane posted to Twitter. Like the Oscar-winning film, it reminds us how the baked-in incentives of greed and competition pit us needlessly against one another, robbing us of our humanity in turn.

The video, which has swiftly marshalled partisans on either side of a longstanding and heated debate about the relative merits of ethical reclining, was shared widely after being posted by a reporter from a Fox news station in Washington on Wednesday.

READ MORE

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TRAVEL: JetBlue gearing up for daily non-stop NYC-GEO-NYC from April 02, 2020

February 7, 2020 – 12:19 am

The JetBlue team with GCAA’s  Director General, Lt. Col. (Ret’d) Egbert Field (seated at left) and others.

The JetBlue team with GCAA’s  Director General, Lt. Col. (Ret’d) Egbert Field (seated at left) and others.
By 

A team from JetBlue Airways Corporation (JetBlue) met with the Director General, Lt. Col. (Ret’d) Egbert Field and his team at the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) on January 28, 2020 to discuss the carrier’s application for commencement of non-stop scheduled air services on the Georgetown to New York  route from April 2, 2020.        Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, communications, Government, Guyana | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)

TRAVEL: Airlines will be hit hard by coronavirus

February 5, 2020 – 12:31 am

The history of past pandemics augurs badly for the travel industry

Feb 3rd 2020 – Graphic detail – The Economist

STOCK MARKETS IN China fell by nearly 8% on February 3rd—the largest single-day fall since 2015—as fears about the economic impact of the Wuhan coronavirus increased. Of the industries affected by the epidemic, perhaps none will be hit as hard as travel.

In recent weeks, hotel occupancy in China has fallen by 45% year-on-year, according to analysts at Citigroup, a bank. Shares in China’s three biggest airlines—Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines—have fallen by more than 20% since the first person died from the new strain, known as 2019-nCoV, on January 9th. The death toll in China has risen to 361. And the first death from the strain has been reported abroad, in the Philippines.

Investors in Chinese aviation are right to be nervous. Some previous pandemics have caused huge drops in airline traffic.            Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Commentary, Geography, Health / Environment, Medical, Personalities, Tourism / Entertainment | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

OPINION: Regional Air Transport is being stifled and destroyed by Governments

February 3, 2020 – 12:11 am

TO PRIME MINISTERS AND OTHER LEADERS OF CARICOM…

Submitted by James C. “Jim” Lynch, Captain, retired to the Barbados Underground Blog

I already know that the worst among you will hit the delete key before you get halfway through this email. But if you do so, feel free to acknowledge to yourself that you truthfully don’t really give a pinhead of a damn about your own people, locally or regionally.

In Jamaica, aviation is growing, with one new airline in process and another (still confidential) about to launch.
https://www.craneforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=29366

But in the rest of the English-speaking Caribbean, including the Bahamas but especially in the eastern Caribbean, aviation has been stifled, restricted, actually attacked by the Civil Aviation Authorities and Departments and bound in red tape to the point where it is almost non-existent – all the while allowing foreign carriers and even private
pilots with illegal small aircraft to rape the local and regional carriers into bankruptcy.

READ MORE

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Caribbean news, communications, Economics/Finance, Personalities, Philosophy, Politics | Tagged , | Comments (2)

Guyana: Renewed efforts to make our roads much safer – by Francis Quamina Farrier     

January 24, 2020 – 12:27 am
– by Francis Quamina Farrier    

Last year, 2019, there were 128 Traffic Fatalities in Guyana, and as I write this article six persons have already lost their lives this year, 2020, due to traffic crashes. However, with the stepping up of a wide range of concerned Guyanese, there is a likelihood that there will be a decrease in the number of victims in 2020.

Over more recent years, in the face a unbelievable madness displayed by a high percentage of drivers here in Guyana, more individuals and groups have stepped forward to arrest the situation in which hundreds of fatalities and thousands injured since the turn of the century. Most Guyanese drivers of today seem to be always in a hurry. Always very impatient. Most of them seem unable to keep their hands off the vehicle horns.    Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Commentary, Government, Guyana, Personalities, Politics | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Guyana: Airport Expansion: Quality checks delay CJIA handover

January 18, 2020 – 12:10 am

Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA)

 Jan 17, 2020  Kaieteur News

The Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) project is on its way to be finally handed over. According to Minister within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MOPI), Jaipaul Sharma, the project is 93% completed and is expected to be handed over to the airport authorities by the first quarter of this year.

The sod was turned for the airport in early 2013 but the US$150M project has been dogged by one problem after the next. It was first scheduled to be handed over in late 2015.
The completion date has been pushed back several times since then.          Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Architecture, Business, Economics/Finance, Government, Guyana, Guyana infrastructure, Personalities | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

Guyana: G$2B feasibility study, designs for Linden highway rehab complete

January 18, 2020 – 12:07 am

 Jan 18, 2020  Kaieteur News

The feasibility studies and designs for the Linden-Soesdyke Highway rehabilitation have been completed by Beston SRKN’gineering Company, a consultancy firm contracted by the Ministry of Public Infrastructure. The project was largely funded by the World Bank.

Section of the Linden-Soesdyke highway

According to the Public Infrastructure Ministry, the G$2 Billion report was recently received and will ensure the 72km highway is fully rehabilitated after decades of neglect.            Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Geography, Government, Guyana, Guyana infrastructure | Tagged , , , , | Comments (4)

Guyana: Intense police presence needed to stomp out Georgetown’s minibus park chaos

January 18, 2020 – 12:03 am

Picture of the bus parks in the city

 Jan 17, 2020   Kaieteur News

President of the United Minibus Union (BMU) Eon Andrews, and Chairman of the Sophia Minibus Branch, Unzie Copeland, are pleading with the Guyana Police Force to intensify their presence at the various minibus parks with the aim of lessening the chaos of over loading that usually occurred.

Kaieteur News understands that the pleading comes after the issue of overloading minibuses has increased drastically.    Continue reading →

By guyaneseonline | Also posted in Business, Commentary, Government, Guyana | Tagged , | Comments (7)
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