The head of the ferry’s parent company said the long-awaited Connect Caribe ferry service will launch in the first months of the new year to address decades-long shortcomings in Caribbean cargo and passenger transport.
Ambassador Andre Thomas, chief executive and chairman of Connect Caribe’s parent, Pleion Group Inc., said the private sector-led initiative, which costs over $50 million, will start operations in the first quarter of 2025 instead of the fourth quarter.
“The complexity of launching such a large-scale and transformative project has delayed Connect Caribe. Success from the start required careful planning and stakeholder engagement, he told Barbados TODAY.
Integration of the US Virgin Islands into our business model was crucial. Managing $25 billion of the $52 billion in US-Caribbean trade, this region is crucial.
Connect Caribe aims to improve trade and regional connectivity by providing maritime transport for people and cargo in the region more than 60 years after the Federal Palm and Federal Maple briefly moved them. It also simplifies maritime operations and facilitates trade.
Ambassador Thomas announced that the Barbados-based Pleion Group will establish a maritime logistics hub through a public-private partnership (PPP) with US Virgin Islands governor Albert Bryan Jr.
He said the hub will efficiently redistribute trade across the Caribbean and make US market access faster and cheaper for Caribbean products.
This integration guarantees full container loads, which is crucial for private sector venture sustainability. While this process took longer, we believe the results will set a new standard for regional connectivity and trade efficiency. Ambassador Thomas promised it would be worth the wait. “We are looking at first-quarter start.”
He said Connect Caribe will initially operate a large vessel in Barbados, St. Vincent, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Trinidad, and Dominica.
Ambassador Thomas said a dedicated cargo vessel will operate on the Barbados-Trinidad-Suriname-Barbados route and another on the USVI route.
