ARE BELIZEANS BEING RIPPED OFF FOR TICKETS AT THE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT IN BELIZE CITY?

** Mezzanine overlooking Belize International Airport ( Philip Goldson airport )

Belize International Airport




Interesting $$ breakdown on Bz ticket cost

ticket = $198
Fuel Surcharge = $240
US Fed Trans = 32.20
BelizeAirport Dev Fee = 18.00
rest are all $7 and under
for total of $532.45
almost 3x ticket


Sent to the Belize Culture Listserve. You will notice that a Belize person pays double what a USA person pays for round trip tickets, to go shopping to the USA. Either Miami, New Orleans, or Houston usually. I've stopped traveling personally to the USA and shop in Guatemala now. The airline ticket price is outrageous usually twice or three times the price, what it costs for a USA person to buy in the USA to travel down to Belize and return. Turns out if you look at the components of the ticket price, the JET FUEL SURCHARGE costs more than the price of the ticket itself.
This raises the question; is there a CRIMINAL SCAM going on at the Belize International Airport?
If you stand on the Mezzanine balcony watching big jets come in and out with passengers. RARELY if ever do you see a BIG JET take on JET FUEL at our airport. I presume because it is cheaper in the USA at their airline hubs, where they probably have bulk discount prices. As far as very big passenger jets go, they don't find the leg to Belize and back a very long leg for fueling problems I suppose?
What you see refueling are private planes, local puddle jumpers with turbo engines and that sort of thing. Which raises the question then, where does the money go, that Belize passengers are paying for JET FUEL SURCHARGE go, on the big airlines? Who in the apparatus of the AIRPORT is making all this money, which is more money than the price of the ticket itself?
It seems to be a CRIMINAL SCAM? It certainly looks like something JULES VASQUEZ our intrepid Belizean investigative reporter should check into and report on. Be nice for the CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Business Perspectives television program, to explain the breakdown of these airline tickets and find out what happens to the JET FUEL SURCHARGE being charged on every ticket for airplanes that don't actually buy JET FUEL at our airport.
Why is it cheaper to buy a round trip airline ticket to Belize from the USA, than if you buy it in Belize, to go to the USA round trip? Something isn't kosher here? Our local tickets are two or three times the cost for Belizeans on the same trip on the same airlines, but with travel originating in Belize, rather than in the USA.
---------------------------------------------------
comment from Miami by Belizean
Dad:

Not sure where you get info from but Miami/Belize is more expensive that California/Bze, Ny/BZ, Houston/Bz & I can even drive north to Orlando,Fl & fly back to miami to connect to Bz cheaper than flying direct Miami/Bz. It is also 2x more expensive than Belize/Miami fares. I am currently trying to get down for spring break/easter break and the tickets here are running $850us-1200 US roundtrip. Of course roatan, guat city & cancun are in the $200-400 US range roundtrip. Explain that difference in cost to me. And Belize wonders why they are not getting tourists? I can get to Europe-Spain, Germany, Switzerland & Hawaii for $450-$500 US RT and even Austrailia, New Zealand, Japan and China for 650-750 US RT so why is Belize more expensive than all those when it is 2 hours away vs the otehr countries 8-20 hrs away? It is because there is an American Airlines monopoly on the route that's why. American Airlines tried to pull the same monopoly thing in Turks and Caicos and the government there permitted/ brought in competing airlines so their fares are better. Taca from Miami to Belize has the best service but no direct flights anymore. All of their flights require a one night layover in Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador or Costa Rica. If you are travelling for a long weekend or for a week then lose two days traveling down and 2 days up from your vacation is a big deal. Right now I am looking to use free mileage for Belize airfare tickets that I had planned instead of using it for Europe in the summer because buying a Europe ticket is far cheaper than buying a Belize ticket. Of course that means I have to fly north to Atlanta first before heading south to Belize (an 8 hr trip instead of 2 hrs) That is also why I have stopped coming down annually to Belize and now go down only every 2 to 3 yrs. Think of all the money Belizean expats could be spending in Belize and instead they are spending elsewhere due to the airfare/logistics problem. My guess is that some local Belize official has his hand in the pie and is in cahoots with American Airlines hence this problem.

Sharon Urscheler SUrscheler@msn.com