Chairman of LIAT & St Vincent Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonzalves fears closure of the carrier is imminent, since most of the countries which use its services are not responding favorably to the airline’s request for US $5.4 million to ensure its survival. Those Countries, including the four major shareholders – Dominica, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, and St Vincent & the Grenadines – along with Grenada, have agreed to contribute to the US $5.4 million.
Dominica is asked to contribute US$347,938 given its 25 weekly flights; St Vincent & the Grenadines, with 52 departures per week is to contribute US $723,711, and Grenada with 35 LIAT departures per week is to contribute US $487,113. Barbados, has 116 weekly departures, the highest by LIAT, is asked to contribute US $1.614 million; Antigua & Barbuda, which has 69 departures, will contribute US $960,310. They were asked to make their contribution by the deadline date of March 15, 2019. But the St Vincent Prime Minister said on a recent radio program that so far, Grenada is the only government which acceded to LIAT’s request by pumping approximately $1 million into the airline. Dr. Gonzalves said, due to the lack of financial input from the other shareholding countries, LIAT’s closure is imminent. He noted that LIAT has 10 aircrafts – 7 leased and 3 owned by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) due to monies borrowed, and a decision will soon have to be made on the way forward. He said the company will have to ask the CDB to sell those three aircraft and operate seven of them; and then get other smaller airlines like ‘One Caribbean’ to fly between Grenada and St. Lucia, rather than get LIAT to fly on one of the routes going to Trinidad which is not economic. Gonzalves said, the governments have not responded, so shareholders are reaching a critical point now; and if you ask me what is likely to happen … there will be a transitional restructuring leading to closure of LIAT”. He said a new airline would be the next option for the region, if LIAT is closed. The Skerrit DLP government of Dominica decided to invest $8 million in LIAT in 2012. In response to criticism of the move, Skerrit said at that time, the Cash injection in LIAT will secure Dominica’s investment in tourism. The question remains, has that investment born the anticipated fruit in terms of Tourist arrivals and expenditures in Dominica?
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