Close to US$60 million in unclaimed bank deposits within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) could be used to help finance a new regional airline, Prime Minister Gaston Browne has proposed.
Speaking during an ABS interview, Browne said the funds — currently held by the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank after remaining dormant for decades — could serve as seed capital for a jointly owned carrier among OECS member states.
“We currently have about, I’d say, close to 60 million US dollars in unclaimed deposits,” Browne said, explaining that the money represents dormant accounts that were eventually remitted to the central bank.
He suggested that instead of leaving the funds idle, OECS governments could pool the resources into a strategic regional project, with air transportation identified as a priority.
“I said to the governor and to my colleague council members that rather than having those funds sitting dormantly within the central bank, that perhaps we need to come together and do a joint project,” Browne said.
Under his proposal, the US$60 million could be used to leverage additional financing, potentially from external partners such as the European Union. Browne indicated that combined funding of up to US$120 million could allow the purchase of five or six new aircraft.
The initiative could either expand LIAT’s fleet or establish a new OECS-branded carrier operating under a shared ownership model among participating states.
Browne has repeatedly argued that reliable regional transportation is essential to economic integration and growth within the Eastern Caribbean, particularly for tourism, trade and cultural exchanges.
He said he plans to advance discussions further when he assumes the chairmanship of the OECS in the coming months.
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The region has more than enough carriers running inefficiently, and not replacing the great operations network formerly provided by LIAT. What our aviation requires is efficiency and cooperation by interlining with each other.