The price of a domestic flight is set to go up—by almost 10%—but it has nothing to do with the local airlines; it's a security surcharge.
This comes after the hijacking of a Tropic Air flight in April of 2025, when an unscreened passenger with a knife got on board and hijacked the plane with 16 persons aboard.
That exposed a domestic air travel network that completely lacked any screening infrastructure. Since then—and the 7News exposé of politically connected companies being paid but not delivering security—proper security has been put in place.
And now passengers will have to pay a $10.00 aviation security fee per departing passenger traveling through municipal airports within Belize.
In other news, Cabinet also gave its approval for amendments to be made to the Cybercrime Bill to clarify the scope of the offense in a manner consistent with the constitutional protection of freedom of expression. The amendments also include an important guardrail, requiring the DPP's written consent before prosecution of an offense can be initiated. This new amendment will "preserve the Government's ability to combat serious forms of technologically facilitated abuse." End quote. You can call this the Mira clause, since it protects against the kind of abuse that led to the frivolous charges against Alberto August.
