If unmoved by the severity of COVID-19 and the social recession currently impacting the globe, the recent comments of Alex Cruz, Chief Executive of British Airways left no doubt in our minds that a seismic shift has already occurred.
Cruz in an announcement to staff under the heading The Survival of British Airways, said "Some of us have worked in aviation through the global financial crisis, the SARS outbreak and 9/11. What is happening right now as a result of COVID-19 is more serious than any of these events. It is a crisis of global proportions like no other we have known,"
Cruz in other comments indicated that the airline was under immense pressure and would be suspending routes and parking aircraft in a way they have never had to before.
The implications for the Caribbean as a tourism centric region are significant. How we manage this and a myriad of other issues will be of utmost importance. The oneness that gives effect to a stronger Caribbean, must be enshrined as an uncompromising focus of our actions today, if we are to realize some respectable emergence from this wave of turbulence tomorrow. Without well-structured and measured cohesion, it will be difficult.