WINN FM: Every territory to which LIAT flies will be asked to purchase shares so that the burdens and the benefits can be equitably shared. That’s the latest proposal coming from St. John’s Antigua, following talks with the airline administrator and two other officials so notes a Dominica News Online article. CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR WHATSAPP GROUP FOR NEWS UPDATES.
WINN FM spoke with a source close to Prime Minister Dr. Timothy Harris who said the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis had not received any official request or communication regarding the proposal and should a request be made, the government would begin discussions.
The Gaston Browne-led cabinet said last week that talks were primarily to discuss the future of the cash-strapped regional carrier including its role and expansion.
“In the proposed new LIAT, the salaries, wages, and other emoluments will take up a smaller part of its cost of operations. Currently, three aircraft are being utilized, as opposed to 10 aircraft before the collapse of LIAT,” noted Antigua’s Information Minister Melford Nicholas.
He said the schedule plan for the new LIAT is intended to reflect the commercial needs and fulfillment of the territories; any destination requiring more flights than has been deemed necessary would make a special payment to realize its ambition. A minimum revenue guarantee (MRG) would be applied in order to determine what that cost would be.
All this comes on the heels of reports from Suriname that CARICOM heads of government are making moves to address the issues plaguing the cash-strapped regional airline LIAT
They have all agreed to meet later this month, possibly between July 22 and 30, to appoint an aviation consultant and put mechanisms in place concerning LIAT.
Jermine Abel of SKNVibes recently spoke with the Prime Minister of Antigua Gaston Browne on the proposal. Browne said, “in an integration movement, you need reliable and sustainable transportation and I think that Prime Minister [of St. Lucia Phillip] Pierre and Minister [Ernest] Hilaire; have gotten the issue right and we are prepared to work with them to work with other Caribbean states in order to ensure that we establish a new LIAT that will be placed on a path of sustainability and viability.”
Kittitians and Nevisians head to the polls on Friday, August 05, 2022, to elect a new government. What does this mean for St. Kitts and Nevis’ input towards the proposal? Browne said he is optimistic that the new government will make this a priority.
“Even if there is a change in government in St. Kitts and Nevis, I believe the new administration will understand that we have no choice but to collaborate with each other to sustain this regional airline which will be to the benefit of the Caribbean people.”
The issue of severance was discussed according to St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who claimed that it is more of a moral issue than a legal one.
Former LIAT employees are owed approximately $80 million dollars in severance pay, which has not yet been settled. The cash-strapped airline switched engines off in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic made its impact felt in the region, and former employees are owed millions in severance pay and other entitlements.
Recently it was announced that Antigua and Barbuda will introduce a new airline, Antigua Airways, which will operate flights from West Africa directly to Antigua. According to an article on Antigua observer, the new airline is hoping to collaborate with LIAT to fly passengers in other Caribbean islands who have come from West Africa on Antigua Airways.
A downsized version of the carrier has been operating a reduced schedule with a limited workforce since November 2020.
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Just regurgitated news reaching at straws no one is going to invest in a lame horse maybe and just maybe if they fix the current problems and pay the workers and ticket holders at least 50% of they money back and relocation to another island people may take a serious lock at reinvesting in liat but I see where browne boy coming from if not in Antigua they will be no Liat but that has already fail and will fail again he doesn’t understand he’s not trusted in Antigua and elsewhere in the Caribbean a want 2b Dictator. I wouldn’t trust him with ackee money.
@Fedup Oh please. You chatting nonsense.
Pure nonsense too.
Yeah I know how it does hurt to hear about moving liat out of Antigua but truth be told that’s the only chance for liat,u may not want to believe it but not one of the Caribbean governments will invest in a liat base in Antigua.
I said this a long time ago . If Liat fails the Caribbean integration will fail. If list fails West Indies cricket, UWI open campuses will fail. It is much cheaper to fly to any state in the US than to travel from one Caribbean destination to the next. List was the Economic, cultural, sport, political , health , Education and Health and wellness unpaid provider for the region. Without Liat each country tourism will have to stand on its own. LIAT should not be looked on as no profitable airline. It must be supposed by each Caribbean country as a public transport system and Subsidized. The spin off from LIAT , the linkages are invaluable. LIAT is truly the Caribbean power house at all levels. LIAT is an institution and if LIAT fails lots of other Caribbean institutions must fail.
T’shirt mass yesterday was the most indecent, vulgar and nudity ever. Then you change our young men for rape. I saw young girls naked , drunk on full display. All private parts full exposed. My daughter ever dress and behave like that would have to remove my name from All document. Never call me daddy, banished. Is this culture? Then we expect immoral people to stop committing crimes – rape , robbery, stealing and murder. Soon you will have the LGBTQ community exposing their private parts just the same. I am sorry for the generations yet unborn. We need leadership in this country, moral leadership. Where is the Christisn council . Where are the few righteous. I am getting to the point of not voting for any of these immoral political parties and politicians. Heaven help us all . If you are not even a Christian you should be still sick to the stomach as an adult, a father, a mother, grandparents. I want to vomit 🤮.
Please STFU because you speaking nonsense what people wearing clothes with their private part have to do with rape first and foremost if you don’t give consent to a person to have sex with you it’s rape so please don’t try to justify what these predators do. Secondly if you feel like vomiting live the Caribbean and go live somewhere else it’s our culture and nothing can change how people choose to dress in carnival!!!!!!
Nowhere in the world is sex so open as in Antigua’s carnival where vulgarity rules. Yes it is our culture, the culture of slavery where sexual enslavement was to procure more picaninies for Massa. Much of the culture-less behaviour is just a flash back of those days, and which will take an inordinate amount of years to unwrap the culture of the plantation.
Black women had to satisfy both the whiteman’s sexual demands for himself, and his enslaved African command to be raped and produce. We were forced to be sexual animals, and we now promote our culture and plantation history at the Carnal which replaces Emancipation. How slavishly sad….
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