Business
LIAT: Shareholders resolve to cut back on routes
Shareholder governments of the regional airline, Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT), said they had taken a number of “tough decisions” including cutting back on routes as they seek to make the Antigua-based airline financially viable.
St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, speaking with reporters at the end of the deliberations, said the decisions were necessary to ensure the survival of the airline that operates 110 scheduled flights daily.
He said that the global economic crisis, the price of fuel, competition on certain routes as well as from the Barbados based low cost carrier REDjet and the Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines (CAL) among others had made it difficult for the regional airline, but that all concerned were “working very hard to turn things around.
“It’s straightforward really. We have to enhance our revenues and we have to reduce the unit cost of operation. These are the times we are in and at all times we should be doing that,” he said, adding “route cuts are also on the cards.”
Gonsalves said that last year, the airline lost an estimated US $17.07 million compared with a loss of US $7.4 million the previous year.
Gonsalves said that the meeting also agreed to make representation to the Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar to ensure there is a level playing field in the region’s airline industry.
“Let’s face it, they have a subsidy, a very significant subsidy for aviation fuel. While they pay US $50 a barrel while we pay US $110 to 120 and sometimes more.
