Bilateral over regional, convergence over harmonisation, incentive schemes, travel journey vision, effective liberalisation. The NACO/ACI-LAC study released in March 2026 does not stop at diagnosis: it puts forward five concrete levers to relaunch intra-regional connectivity. Decoding chapter 5, and closing our series.
After six articles devoted to the diagnosis drawn by the NACO study commissioned by ACI-LAC, the time for recommendations has come. The report puts forward five, presented in its chapter 5 under the title “A Renewed Vision for Progress.” These recommendations share a common orientation: they prioritise the pragmatic over the ambitious, the bilateral over the multilateral, and the measurable over the declarative. They also draw on the analysis of international experiences (European Union, Australia, United States, Spain) which the study examines in detail.
Lever 1 — Identify concrete bilateral opportunities while leveraging multilateral initiatives at the regional level
The adoption of a market-specific approach based on bilateral opportunities should be the primary pathway to enhance intra-Caribbean air connectivity, at least in the short run. According to NACO, the identification of concrete commercial priorities should be supported by a rigorous assessment of growing and/or potential demand between markets, and be pursued through bilateral channels, namely airport-to-airport or country-to-country.
This approach does not dismiss the role of regional organisations. The report recalls that the pursuit of aspirational goals such as Caribbean economic integration through a Single Market vision, with a long-term view to increase the competitiveness of the entire region, remains relevant in 2025. International experiences demonstrate that regional organisations are essential to promote a common approach to air connectivity, including sharing resources, industry knowledge and lessons learned. CARICOM, the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and ECCAA retain a structuring role — provided they do not substitute for the bilateral agenda in the short-term.
Lever 2 — Focus on gradual regulatory convergence rather than harmonisation at all costs
This lever, explored in depth in the sixth article of this series, deserves to be restated in the recommendations framework. The report argues for a gradual, low-hanging fruit approach: select one or two issues where there is an urgent need to curb the negative effects of current national policies on intra-Caribbean connectivity — particularly those that prevent seamless connectivity, for example visa and entry requirements or airport security protocols. Convergence is presented as a more suitable and realistic approach to align multiple regulatory regimes and promote intra-regional connectivity in the short-term, both practically and politically.
Lever 3 — Implement regional incentive schemes that tackle both offer and demand for air travel
A third recommendation is the implementation of regional connectivity incentive schemes with a firm end date and tailored so that airlines actively engage in the promotion and growth of new routes. The report stresses a fundamental principle: local governments and tourism industry stakeholders — including airports — should not be in the business of subsidising the supply of air services indefinitely. The incentive must have a defined horizon.
The study examines several international models. The EU Public Service Obligations (POS) framework allows Member States to impose public service obligations on routes considered “vital for the economic development of the region they serve.” If no air carrier is interested in operating the route, the Member State concerned may restrict access to a single carrier and compensate the operational losses. Countries currently benefiting from the POS framework include Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France (with a strong representation of Caribbean overseas territories), Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.
To this approach NACO adds other models: Australia’s Remote Air Services Subsidy (RASS) Scheme, which subsidises a regular weekly air transport service for the carriage of passengers and goods such as educational materials, medicines and fresh foods to remote and isolated communities; the US Essential Air Service Program, which provides subsidies for scheduled air services to small rural communities through a competitive bidding process spanning two to four years; Spain’s SARA programme, which offers residents of the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Ceuta and Melilla discounts of up to 75% on domestic flights and ferry tickets. The report also mentions similar programmes in France, Italy and New Zealand.
For the Caribbean context, NACO suggests that a bilateral approach to regional connectivity incentive schemes may offer a practical solution whereby two countries willingly decide to jointly fund a specific route based on national public policy considerations.
Lever 4 — Focus on reducing costs with a travel journey vision
A common theme raised during interviews with airport executives is that the cost of intra-regional travel is completely disproportionate to current income levels in most Caribbean countries. As the cost of travel extends beyond airfares, Caribbean travellers are also burdened with additional government-imposed taxes, expensive overnight stays and longer than reasonable travel times. The report therefore recommends a holistic approach that also considers the quality of air connectivity with a focus on the travel journey. Travel is treated as a continuous experience (pre-flight, in-flight, post-flight), not as a mere succession of tickets.
On this issue, NACO formulates several concrete sub-recommendations. Airports should work closely with airlines to achieve better schedule optimisation with a view to enabling same-day return services — an important limitation hindering inter-island travel at the moment. Reducing the duration of travel journeys for local passengers is likely to eliminate the need for overnight stays, lowering travel costs for residents who are otherwise subject to hotel rates more suitable for international visitors from higher-income countries.
The report also recommends a serious reassessment of the long-term benefits of reducing general taxes on aviation activities. A recalibration of taxes for intra-regional travellers could stimulate regional connectivity, ultimately strengthening economic competitiveness and integration across the Caribbean. Given that air travel has elastic demand, reductions in travel costs typically stimulate greater demand. Local governments and tourism authorities may potentially consider some incentive schemes aimed at encouraging intra-island travel by local residents, particularly during the low season. NACO cites for example Thailand’s “We Travel Together” scheme, aimed at stimulating domestic tourism during the low season.
Lever 5 — Focus on effective rather than paper liberalisation
The fifth and final lever is arguably the most structuring. The report observes that most governments today will embrace the idea of air liberalisation — and even sign open skies-type agreements with their trade and tourism partners — but that oftentimes the doing business landscape remains costly, burdensome and inefficient. This situation was termed “paper liberalisation” in the report. The Caribbean region should move from paper liberalisation to effective liberalisation by focusing on tangible improvements to the business and regulatory landscape for air services.
Concretely, Caribbean countries should ensure that their Bilateral Air Services Agreements (BASA) are fully aligned with the aspirational goals of CARICOM’s Multilateral Air Services Agreement (MASA), which already promotes regulatory convergence and the notion of Caribbean Community. NACO acknowledges that not all Caribbean countries may be in a position to fully embrace the Community vision, but efforts should be made to provide an open market environment for air services, including a sound and non-distortive business and policy landscape for air operations.
A regional reading: from diagnosis to roadmap
At the close of this series, several observations stand out. First, the internal coherence of the five levers is notable: they dialogue with one another. The bilateral approach (lever 1) finds its methodological counterpart in convergence (lever 2), its economic engine in incentive schemes (lever 3), its operational translation in the travel journey vision (lever 4), and its political guarantee in effective liberalisation (lever 5). Second, the report’s novelty lies less in the identification of any individual lever than in their articulation as a coherent whole — and in the paradigm shift of abandoning the ambition of a unified regional transformation in favour of an accumulation of measurable bilateral progress.
For the region’s B2B players, this paradigm shift calls for a change in posture. Intra-Caribbean connectivity, long approached as an object of multilateral diplomatic negotiation, becomes an object of identifiable commercial opportunity, country-pair by country-pair. This transformation opens new space for actors prepared to position themselves on targeted bilateral corridors — whether airlines, airports, financing institutions, or tourism stakeholders. The NACO report does not deliver a turnkey solution: it proposes a method. And in a dossier that has lacked one for two decades, that may well be one of its most valuable contributions.
This series of seven articles has covered the main dynamics of the NACO/ACI-LAC study. The diagnosis is on the table, the levers identified. It is now up to the region’s B2B players — airport authorities, airlines, public institutions, regional organisations — to translate this analysis into operational decisions. Latitude 15 will continue, in its forthcoming editions, to track the concrete progress that this roadmap will inspire.
LATITUDE 15 — ANALYTICAL SERIES Decoding the NACO/ACI-LAC study on Caribbean air connectivity — Article 7/7
Source : NACO (Netherlands Airport Consultants), The State of Air Connectivity in the Caribbean: A Renewed Vision for Progress, independent study commissioned by ACI-LAC, March 2026, 128 pages.
