Leave Us With LIAT, PM Browne Tells His Colleague Shareholders

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, March 16 2015, CNS – Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne Monday urged his colleague shareholder prime ministers in the regional airline LIAT not to interfere with the current structure of the carrier, reiterating that this would have a devastating effect of his country’s economy.

“All I’m saying to them – leave us with LIAT. Leeward Islands Air Transport, not Southern Islands Air Transport; and again, we will resist to the best we can,” Browne said in response to plans to move the airline’s fleet base to Barbados and retrench 180 workers. He made the comments during an interview on Observer Radio.

“As you know, they are seeking to redeploy assets to Barbados and you can be assured, if those assets move, then you cannot justify having the maintenance base here. And if the maintenance base moves then you cannot justify the headquarters. They are literally pulling and have pulled, to some extent, the rug from under our feet over the years.”

The Antigua and Barbuda leader said his government will continue to resist any such further move, while admitting that “from a legal standpoint, we don’t have the shareholding capacity but we are fighting and we are just hoping that at the end of the day, being part of a common union within the OECS and being part of CARICOM, that the other countries will understand that all we export out of this country is LIAT”.

LIAT is owned by 11 Caribbean governments, with the majority being the Governments of Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Dominica.

The Prime Minister said he was always of the view that it was a fatal mistake to allow the southern islands to control the majority shares of LIAT.

“We have been consumers; we buy flour from St. Vincent, we buy juices from Barbados, we buy vegetables and provisions from Dominica and all I’m saying to them – leave us with LIAT,” Browne said.

On the issue of the planned retrenchment, Browne said while there might not be another alternative, the company should consider the least painful option.

“Now with St. Vincent going into an election this year, if LIAT is going to retrench (do) you think the Prime Minister of St. Vincent is going to want to let go anybody in St. Vincent? Barbados has the majority shares, they say they want more business. (Do) you think they’re going to allow anybody from St. Vincent to go? At the end of the day it is Antigua and Barbuda that will be affected,” Brown outlined.

“But we’re fighting; and what I will say here, in the event that they will deploy these assets and make these proposed changes, then perhaps the LIAT workers may have to start to put their business in order because I guarantee you, it will be a total meltdown and destruction of LIAT.”