BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Jul 6 2015 – Prime Minister Dr. Kenny Anthony says St. Lucia is not prepared to invest in regional airline, LIAT, and called on its shareholder governments to bite the bullet and put in place policies that would ensure the financial viability of the Antigua-based carrier.
“This is not a question of governments making sacrifices, it is also a question of LIAT, its employees and its pilots also making sacrifices for the future of LIAT,” Anthony said.
LIAT is owned by the shareholder governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The four regional governments have been appealing to other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments to invest in the airline that services 17 destinations.
Anthony, who was here attending the just concluded CARICOM summit, told reporters that his island has suffered “greatly under the new regime” that the airline is now applying.
“Our citizens enjoy fewer flights, we have also had reports in some countries our citizens are being discriminated against, and they are told by LIAT staff in some of those airports that they cannot assist them because the government of St. Lucia does not invest in LIAT.
“That kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable, unwarranted. St. Lucia is an important destination for LIAT, but I do not believe that kind of pressure should be exerted on St. Lucia merely because St. Lucia does not invest in LIAT.
“The fact of the matter is that we are spinning top in mud and as much as I would want to see a strong viable regional carrier, it cannot be at all costs, meaning that you invest solely because it is a regional carrier.
“There has to be more to it than that,” Anthony said, adding “the reality of the situation is this LIAT may never seriously earn a significant profit, but that is no excuse to ensuring that inefficiency continues”.
Prime Minister Anthony said what is needed right now is a transformation of the airline to ensure that it is far more efficient “that it is operated strictly on appropriate financial formula that ensures losses are curtailed and efficiencies are gained.
“I believe that if these things can happen that the future of LIAT will be different, but I am not going to be goaded into supporting LIAT for purposes of nostalgia that is not going to happen in the case of St. Lucia.
“St. Lucia’s position has always been very clear that until and unless there is fundamental restructuring in LIAT, until and unless all understand that they are part of the scarifies that are necessary for LIAT to survive we are going to maintain our distance,” he added.
