Ramesh Lutchmedial
The proposal by Caribbean Airlines Ltd (CAL) to acquire additional ATR 72 aircraft to service the intra-regional market to fill the void created by the bankrupt and debt-ridden Liat 1974 Ltd is an excellent strategic move.
After Liat went into bankruptcy and court-appointed administration in July 2020, the government of Antigua and Barbuda, as one of the shareholder governments, added business rehabilitation provisions to its Companies Act and incorporated a new company. Liat 2020 Ltd. to ensure the airline's continuity.
The shareholder governments were unable to agree on a new governance structure. Additionally, funding could not be obtained for settling all of Liat’s outstanding debts including severance payments and for the capitalisation of Liat 2020 Ltd.
Consequently, in August 2022. the four main shareholders of Liat 1974 – Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados, and St Vincent and the Grenadines – took a collective decision to liquidate Liat 1974 Ltd.
[caption id="attachment_1011870" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Liat aircraft at Grantley Adams Airport, Barbados. - File photo[/caption]
In a statement, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne said Liat is considered by heads a public good, a social good “that contributes considerably to regional connectivity and makes a web constructive financial contribution to regional economies. Commitments were given in support of a new, efficient, and expanded LIAT 2020 instead, which heads believe will satisfy the immediate regional travel demand.”
To date, there has been little movement on Liat 2020 Ltd, and the Eastern Caribbean islands are woefully short of adequate and reliable air transportation linkages.
Regional air transportation has been plagued by insularity and geopolitics. In June 2020, Browne, during an interview on Antigua’s Observer Radio, stated that he rejects any idea of CAL replacing Liat. He told Observer Radio that Antigua would sooner start a scaled-down Liat, on its own rather than to give CAL a monopoly.
“Trinidad cannot literally be supplying all our food, the supermarket of the Caribbean, and now just come and try monopolise air services or transportation. I will never agree to that. As I said the benefits of Caricom should be shared,” the prime minister said. “And in terms of those who are suggesting CAL, giving CAL a monopoly on the provision of air services within Caricom, I am totally opposed to that, one million per cent opposed to that.”
As the TT Cabinet considers CAL’s plans to increase intra-regional connectivity, it must be guided by the missteps of the previous administration regarding CAL’s route expansions.
At a gala million-dollar function held at the Pegasus Hotel, Jamaica, on January 14, 2011, a senior TT government official announced that CAL was going to operate one airline with two brands. At the same function CAL’s chairman said he believed in the brand value of Air Jamaica, saying, “We are very excited about revitalising and reintroducing this historic brand. We are comm
