KINGSTOWN, St Vincent (CMC) – Chairman of the shareholder governments of the regional airline, LIAT, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves yesterday sought to assure employees that payment of outstanding salaries and arrears “will be urgently addressed”.
Gonsalves, in a letter addressed to staff members, said that LIAT has been challenged as a consequence of the novel coronavirus pandemic and that the “financial state of the company has been reviewed and LIAT is unable to pay its debt”.
Last weekend the major shareholder governments – Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines, decided to liquidate the airline, which has had ongoing financial woes.
Gonsalves said a report from the board of directors and the management on the critical financial position of the airline “particularly on the issue concerning winding up or liquidation and taking the decision for a general meeting of all the ordinary shareholders of the company to consider a resolution for the winding up, dissolution of the company”.
In his June 29 letter to staff, Gonsalves said the major shareholders have made every effort to support the airline “however, with the current pandemic affecting all sectors of national economies, the major shareholders are unable to give LIAT needed support.
