Searchlight Newspaper Editorial — From all reports there seems to be growing consensus for the re-establishment of a government subsidised intra-regional airline to serve air transport needs within the Eastern Caribbean.
This follows months of virtual “air horror” as passengers, regional and extra-regional alike, are being left stranded around the region with little or no communication from or restitution by the “successor” to the collapsed regional air carrier LIAT.
Let’s just regress a little, for there is an old saying: “Be careful what you wish for”. LIAT had come under tremendous pressure, from the public, its employees, as well as short sighted regional governments which refused to fund its needed fleet regeneration and expansion, while happily subsidizing foreign airlines, and we were led to believe that the private sector would be able to fill the void.
The last few months have brought harsh reality to the region. Each week there are reports, from Barbados, Guyana, Antigua, Dominica and, yes, our own Argyle International Airport of stranded passengers having to fork out thousands of dollars to purchase tickets just to get to a destination though they were holding confirmed tickets on a regional air carrier.
It was easier to create the illusion, much harder to make it a reality.
It has reached the stage that on the sidelines of the last CARICOM Heads of Government summit, there appeared to be an emerging consensus that intra-Caribbean air transport needs could only be met by a public-funded airline, as is the case with the University of the West Indies and other regional institutions deemed essential for Caribbean development.
It has taken costly disruptions for this reality to be acknowledged and for the “private sector” talk to be proven to be a load of hot air.
Regional air transport in a modern development context is just as important for regional development as modern health care and educational systems. In a region highly dependent on tourism, intra-regional travel must be a key component.
Trade and communication cannot prosper without this vital cog, and the chaos that has ensued during this mid-year vacation period and the disruption to sporting and cultural links have emphasized how short-sighted we were in buying the skewed anti-LIAT propaganda.
Of course, this is no excuse for the old LIAT’s well-publicized weaknesses, nor for poor political leadership. But it must now be palpably clear that to believe that the solution is a scramble for some crumbs from a scattered LIAT pie, cannot be the way to go.
In the meantime, even our tourism product is suffering as evidenced by the experience of stranded extra-regional passengers, whose story was published by SEARCHLIGHT on Saturday, August 19.
We can only hope that chastened by our experiences, our political leaders and patriotic elements in the private sector will face up to reality, learn from our costly errors and proceed to reconstruct an efficient regional air transport system based on a model of public-private partnership on which our regional development can depend.
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Mia and Ralph should be made to apologize to the people of the Caribbean for pulling the plug on LAIT. We know it’s all because she is in an IMF program. And we keep telling people IMF is not your friend. They will tell you what to do and when things go wrong you will take the hit. I haven’t heard anyone here in this forum nor the Website reporting on the big write off of the debt the Barbados government had to the NIS.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2023/08/17/ridiculous-remedy/
Can you imagine if Gaston Browne would write off the $500 million dollars that the government owed to Social Security?
And I agree with Barbados, these things are just window dressing of your Balance Sheet. In the end if the Scheme needs funds the Government will have to find money for it. Just like here in Antigua and Barbuda. Take the loss in the books now and deal with making the balance sheet healthy over time. It will allow the government to have a better credit rating and then they can go and borrow fresh money. Which is what is needed. Fresh money to put in a new LIAT for example.
I wish you’d speak from the heart and stop being dictated to. Gaston just recently, sheepishly hinted his intention to approach the unfriendly IMF. I suppose he’s going to tell them what to do and when things go wrong they will take the hit.
My master Gaston Browne, please tell me what else to say to convince them to keep you in power.
Only those greedy and thieving Caribbean politicians don’t know that LIAT as probably the most important Caribbean institution contributes much more economically that is direct ticketing sales. Recently when asked if Carnival is profitable his response was – that carnival profit cannot be counted as gate ticket sales but we need to include the off spins – hotel head taxes , taxi operators gain in the off season, the vendors, the suppliers, the beauticians and so on. So can you imagine the amount of economic contributions , social contributions, Education contributions, health and wellness contributions snd sporting contributions. I said a long time no LIAT you can scrap Caribbean integration. Our universities are suffering since it is easier to get international flights.
LIAT should be subsidized by each and every Caribbean country. The more flights it puts on to a country the more subsidy that country should pay. So let’s say LIST puts on One flight per week to Monserrat then the subsidy from Monserrat, should be far less than Barbuda who requires 3 to 5 flights daily- Visa , University, link internacional flights, Medical, business, tourism, sports, funeral , inter- island connecting and on and on. LIAT many not make a profit on these flights? But the tremendous economic benefits it brings to Barbados cannot be counted in dollars and cents.
The Caribbean governments needs to get their act together. So much money floating around from CBI, I’m sure that money can be used to “pool” Liat out of the water.
Let Liat operate solely as a regional air carrier. Like taking a bus.
You pay your bus fee and you get off where you going. Not having to pay bus fee and then this tax plus that tax and ALL the other taxes. Lot of foolishness like “airport security tax then a passenger tax” just to name two.
For the most part a departure tax paid at the airport where you are departing from and end of story.
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