The restructuring of LIAT is continuing, says Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
In her Budget presentation today in the House of Assembly, Mottley said they were making some progress in this exercise.
Earlier this month it was reported that the airline could go belly up in ten days unless CARICOM could find it a $10 million lifeline.
Mottley said today that year after the year the debt was piling up, while ticket prices were rising.
She noted it was cheaper to fly to Miami and New York than to fly to St Kitts.
“There are more government shareholders in LIAT than in any airline in the world. The open secret is, if a loss-making route gets cut, calls are made, pressure is put on management, and the route reappears” she said.
Mottley added: “We are not at the point where we want to be. There will be hiccups. We believe the time has come for us to take commercial decisions in a timely manner. It may mean the structure has to change and sacrifices have to be made. But we believe it is worth it”.
A report carried in the March 2, 2019 edition of the Saturday Sun stated that LIAT needed an immediate cash injection of millions of dollars to keep flying or it could cease to operate.
However, at the time, Chief Executive Officer of the airline Julie Reifer-Jones said the airline would continue to operate across the region and sought to reassure passengers that it would continue business. (Nation News)
