Business
LIAT: Shareholders resolve to cut back on routes
“Clearly no one wants to stop CAL and no one can properly stop CAL from coming on any set of routes but let’s have a level playing field and let’s have fair competition,” he said, adding “It is our contention that such unfair competition is subversive of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas – that governs the regional integration movement, and also of the common air services agreement in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and we must address this.”
Gonsalves said that the board of directors had presented the shareholder governments with a number of options to keep the cash-strapped carrier servicing the region.
“We adopted from the board a bundle of proposals relating to a recovery plan in the short to term which will stem some of the cash flow problems, we addressed a number of routes which we have to reassess, this is a continuation from what is ongoing.
“In relation to the fleet renewal and expansion, there are some proposals which are before us and we go back to our capitals and we study them and within two or three weeks we go back to the board and the management as to where we go forward.
“Then decisions have to be made with various airlines, the financing arrangements, a numbers of steps will have to be taken in relation to expansion and the study of routes,” he said.
Gonsalves disclosed that St Lucia and Dominica have expressed an interest in investing in LIAT.
The meeting was taking place amid severe criticism from the labor unions, headed by chairman of the Regional Grouping of Trade Unions, Chester Humphrey, that they had not been given sufficient time to study the strategic plan outlined by the airline.
