LIALPA calls on Shareholder Governments to remove management of LIAT saying, there is no other choice

​The Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) calls on LIAT Shareholder Governments to remove the Airline’s management, saying it “unfortunately has no other choice”. A LIALPA release stated, “We reluctantly make this call because we will not stand by and watch the airline’s financial health continue to deteriorate at massive levels, to the point where LIAT can’t even pay salaries on time. First of all, we want to clear the air and state categorically that a recent LIAT Press Release referencing flight disruptions due to industrial unrest, has nothing to do with LIALPA, and we are not involved at all”.
 
The release added, “we continue to pledge to the Caribbean people that we are going above & beyond the call of duty, to get the Airline running at Optimal Levels, even to the extent of not having meal breaks and working 11 hour shifts. We have already worked almost an extra week without pay, and this is not sustainable.”
 
LIAPL says concerns about loss of market share, insufficient crews & poor scheduling practices, relayed to management over many years, continue to fall on deaf ears. It cited some examples of incompetent management and poor decision making including:
 
Decreased aircraft fleet from 18 to 10; Lack of adequate crew; Head of Flight Operations’ incompetence in their hiring of inexperienced pilots; Loss of $10Million dollars in hangar fire due to records not being properly backed up off site; Massive loses for removing a flight route from the Grenada schedule, and in routes being taken over by competitors; Seeking to hire a high-priced consultant to train the Head of Flight Operations, among a host of other things.
 
The Pilots stated, “To make matters worse, management refuses to accept responsibility for the sad state of the airline’s affairs, and is focusing instead on making the Crew the Scapegoats. The traveling public deserves to know the truth. The current management at LIAT is not capable of running the airline at this critical time. Their track record speaks for itself.”