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Caribbean L 32 ife, April 26–May 2, 2019 BQ
LIAT faces possible closure
(EIB) for help in saving the carrier from
closure.
Shareholding governments and
management have held several emergency
meetings in recent weeks to
resolve the issue and there has been
talk about cutting some unprofitable
routes like Trinidad from the schedule
to stop the financial bleeding as passenger
loads average less than 40 percent
on that segment.
In the meantime, Mottley said the
time has come to look beyond the
Caribbean for help as LIAT cannot be
allowed to go under by any means.
Early indications are that the EIB is
interested in assisting. Barbados is
a major tourist destination, which
depends on LIAT for passenger feeder
services for tourists to big name airlines
like American, Jet Blue, Virgin
and British Airways.
“The EIB doesn’t only lend to the government,
it also lends to private companies
like the Barbados Light and Power
in the past and it has also engaged here
with not just national projects but also
regional projects. And as the lead prime
minister for the single market and single
economy, I also had to engage in discussions
with them on opportunities within
the transport sector in particular, with
respect to the EIB and its role in the
region,” she told reporters.
In the meantime, Trinidad-based Caribbean
Airlines, which has its own fleet
of ATR planes is waiting in the wings to
pick up any slack from LIAT.
Trinidad’s Minister of Finance, Colm
Imbert said LIAT-dependent governments
have already approached Port
of Spain, asking it to buy shares in
exchange for cash but such is not on the
government’s radar, at least not in the
near future.
“CAL has enough capacity and it there
is a problem and LIAT finds itself unable
to fly to Trinidad, then CAL will pick up
the slack. We have no plan at this point
in time to get back into LIAT,” he said
recently.
Approaches both for shareholding and
cash injections have already been made
to Guyana’s government but it is unclear
if any decision will be made anytime
soon.
The Guyana routes from Trinidad and
Barbados have proven to be cash cows
for LIAT in recent years but authorities
appear not to have seen the wisdom of
investing in the carrier, perhaps confident
that such a money spinning route
will not ever be scrapped from schedules.
For his part, Gonsalves said that
shareholders might soon be compelled
to ask the Caribbean Development Bank
(CDB) to sell three of the 10 planes and
push other island hoppers to work not so
profitable routes such as St. Lucia, Grenada
and Trinidad.
Continued from Page 1
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