A rationalised Caribbean Star/LIAT alliance should have the first option on the lucrative St Lucia/Barbados route and not American Eagle.

That's the word from Minister of Tourism Noel Lynch, who described as "unreasonable" the proposed introduction of the service scheduled to start from September 4. He termed it "cherry picking" the best routes.

St Lucia's Minister of Tourism Allen Chastanet announced the start-up of the service at a recent Cabinet meeting there, as a means of providing an alternative to LIAT in the wake of the high airfares charged by the Antigua-based airline.

Speaking during a Press conference at Sherbourne Conference Centre yesterday to announce the start-up of new non-stop service from Fort Lauderdale, Lynch said American Eagle should never be allowed on this route.

He said if Caribbean Star and LIAT had been allowed to "cherry pick" their routes the same way in which a competitor had been allowed to, then most of the rationalisation efforts by the airline would be resolved.

"I think it is unreasonable for any destination or any territory to allow 'cherry picking' of the more lucrative routes. In the spirit of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy and in keeping with the spirit of integration, we need to ensure that we look after our brothers and sisters.

"If we were only going to fly a new LIAT to the routes that were more lucrative, a lot of our brothers and sisters would suffer, but we do not have that luxury and clearly we should not allow a foreign carrier . . . . A rationalised Caribbean Star/LIAT should have the first option rather than bringing American Eagle in when we are still in the process of rationalising the two airlines," Lynch added.

St Vincent Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves has chastised St Lucia over the new airline service, maintaining St Lucia should have engaged LIAT in discussion before contemplating the move. (JW)