Caribbean News
TCI: Provo Air Center Rated #1 private airport in the Caribbean
#TurksandCaicos, April 5, 2021 – Air travel suffered, but not as much among private jetsetters as was the case in the commercial industry. In a pandemic year, where a new virus emerged and managed to ground travel and tourism, Provo Air Center in Providenciales, Turks and Caicos held a leading position and improved upon service delivery.
In the annual rating of Aviation International News, Provo Air Center, the country’s longest running Fixed-Based Operator or private airport maintained its No. 1 spot for the Caribbean region; earning what could be equated to well above four stars out of a possible five.
Provo Air Center earned 4.37 points in the survey, which published the results on April 1, 2021.
Debbie Aharon, CEO of Provo Air Center attributes the fourth consecutive win to her team. “We basically had to reinvent our business and redefine what luxury means in today’s environment; I am proud of my fabulous staff. They did it!”
Global business for FBO’s plummeted some 65 per cent in 2020, according to industry data provider JetNet, when compared to 2019.
“Putting 2020 in context, the last time FBOs suffered through similar declines was during the Great Recession [2008-2010] when it took about six years to recover back to where we were at the 2007 peak,” said Mark Chambers, managing partner for industry consultant Aviation Resource Group International (ARGI).
The industry suffered even greater losses when it came to fuel earnings; 67 per cent and though travel for corporate executives was down, pleasure seekers and first timers to the private air field peaked and since December growth has been commendable; steady.
“The current recovery from 2020 looks different in our industry since the benefits of private travel are being spotlighted and shifting more passengers from airline terminals to FBOs,” Chambers told AIN. “This has heightened the interest on the buy side.”
FBOs were rated in five categories: Line Service, Passenger Amenities, Pilot Amenities, Facilities, and CSRs.
“It is not enough to specialize in just one or two categories, as some locations that earned the highest overall score in a category did not place in the top 10 percent of FBOs in this year’s survey. To reach the top rungs, a location must excel in all five categories.”
Provo Air Center earned 4.37, improving by .16 points; in second place was Odyssey Aviation in Nassau, The Bahamas with 4.36; Jet Nassau, Nassau, The Bahamas 4.08 placed third and fourth was listed as TLC Aviation, St Maarten with 3.68 out of a possible five.
By Deandrea Hamilton | Magnetic Media
October 14, 2025 – It’s being called political theatre — but for citizens, constitutional watchdogs, and democracy advocates across the Caribbean, it feels far more serious. Within a single week, two national parliaments — in Trinidad and Tobago and St. Kitts and Nevis — descended into turmoil as opposition members stormed out in protest, accusing their Speakers of bias, overreach, and abuse of parliamentary procedure.
For observers, the walkouts signal a deeper problem: erosion of trust in the very institutions meant to safeguard democracy. When Speakers are viewed as political enforcers instead of neutral referees, parliaments stop functioning as chambers of debate and start performing as stages for power and spectacle — with citizens left wondering who, if anyone, is still accountable.
October 6: St. Kitts Parliament Erupts
The first walkout erupted in Basseterre on October 6, 2025, when Dr. Timothy Harris, former Prime Minister and now Opposition Leader,
led his team out of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly in a protest that stunned the chamber.
The flashpoint came as the Speaker moved to approve more than three years’ worth of unratified parliamentary minutes in one sitting — covering 27 meetings and three national budgets — without individual review or debate.
Dr. Harris called the move “a flagrant breach of the Constitution and parliamentary tradition,” warning that the practice undermines transparency and accountability. “No serious parliament can go years without approving a single set of minutes,” he said after exiting the chamber.
The Speaker defended the decision as administrative housekeeping, but critics were unconvinced, branding the move a “world record disgrace.” The opposition’s walkout triggered renewed calls for the Speaker’s resignation and sparked a wider public discussion about record-keeping, accountability, and respect for parliamentary norms in St. Kitts and Nevis.
October 10: Trinidad Opposition Follows Suit
Four days later, on October 10, 2025, the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago staged its own walkout from the House of Representatives in Port of Spain.
The UNC accused the Speaker of partisan bias, claiming she had repeatedly blocked urgent questions, ignored points of order, and allowed government members to breach standing orders without consequence.
“The Speaker has failed in her duty to act impartially,” the Opposition declared in a statement. “Parliament is not the property of any political party or Presiding Officer.”
The dramatic exit was seen as a culmination of months of rising tension and frustration, with opposition MPs arguing that parliamentary rules were being selectively applied to silence dissenting voices.
Political analyst Dr. Marcia Ferdinand described the twin walkouts as “a warning sign that parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean is teetering on the edge of performative politics.”
“When chairs become political shields rather than constitutional referees,” she said, “democracy becomes theatre, not governance.”
A Pattern Emerging
While St. Kitts and Trinidad are very different political environments, both incidents point to the same regional fault line: the perception that Speakers — the guardians of parliamentary order — are no longer impartial.
In Westminster-style systems like those across the Caribbean, the Speaker’s authority depends not on power but on public confidence in fairness. Once that credibility erodes, parliamentary control collapses into confrontation.
Governance experts say the implications are serious: eroded trust between government and opposition, declining public confidence in state institutions, and growing voter cynicism that “rules” are flexible tools of political advantage.
Why It Matters
Parliamentary walkouts are not new in the Caribbean, but what makes these recent events different is their frequency and intensity — and
the regional echo they’ve created. Social media has amplified images of lawmakers storming out, with citizens from Barbados to Belize questioning whether the same erosion of decorum could be happening in their own legislatures.
Analysts warn that if this perception takes hold, it risks diminishing the moral authority of parliamentary democracy itself.
“Once opposition MPs believe the rules are rigged, and once citizens believe Parliament is just performance,” said one Caribbean governance researcher, “you’ve lost the most valuable currency in democracy — trust.”
Restoring Balance
Political reformers across the region are calling for tighter Standing Order enforcement, independent parliamentary service commissions, and training to strengthen Speaker neutrality. Civil society leaders say the public must also play its part by demanding transparency and refusing to normalize partisan manipulation of parliamentary procedure.
Whether these twin walkouts become catalysts for reform — or simply another episode of Caribbean political theatre — will depend on what happens next inside those chambers.
For now, democracy watchers agree on one thing: when opposition leaders feel the only way to be heard is to walk out, the entire democratic house — not just its Speaker — is in danger of collapse.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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