Caribbean Times 11.03.2016

news
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St. Vincent PM addresses LIAT issues
By Theresa Blackman
Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines and Chairman of the Majority Shareholder Governments
of LIAT, Dr Ralph Gonsalves (L) speaking at Wednesday’s press briefing while Barbados’
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart listens. (C. Pitt/BGIS)
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (BGIS)
-- Prime minister of St Vincent and the
Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, has
sought to “clear the air” on some of the
misconceptions about regional air carrier
LIAT.
Gonsalves, who is the chairman of the
majority shareholder governments of the
carrier, was in Barbados for the prime
ministerial grouping’s quarterly meeting.
He told reporters during a press conference
on Wednesday that, with the
carrier being “very much” in the news,
he wanted to share some factual information
on its current status.
Stating that LIAT was one of the few
airlines in the world where all of its aircraft
was under two years old, the prime
minister noted that “it cost a lot of money
to re-fleet”.
“You will recall that the shareholder
governments – Barbados, Antigua and
Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines
had secured a loan from the Caribbean
Development Bank for an investment
for the re-fleeting … So, a few
years ago, we carried out the re-fleeting
exercise and we have disposed of the last
Dash Eights,” he said.
Adding that at one time LIAT had 16
or 17 aircraft serving the region, Gonsalves
said the airline now had to do so
with a smaller number of aircraft.
“The difference then, compared to
now, is that back then you had 37-seaters
and 30-seaters and now we have 50-seaters
and 70-seaters. So, even in terms of
the carriage load there is not a real difference
between what we had before and
what we have now. The fact is, we have
fewer aircraft actually moving people,
so, therefore, we have to be very prudent
as to the routes that we are serving,” he
pointed out.
In terms of performance as outlined
by LIAT’s management, the chairman
explained that up to August this year
there was a $5 million net profit, but it
was forecast that the airline would lose
EC$9.2 million by the end of this year.
“But, this is moving from numbers
close to $100 million to $57 million, and
even last year, roughly half of the $57
million had to do with losses incurred
Continued on page 26
Caribbean Times | November 3-16, 2016
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