Prime Minister Gaston Browne has rejected any idea of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines replacing LIAT which is about to go belly up.
Browne made the remarks while considering how regional travel will be facilitated with the pending liquidation of LIAT.
He told Observer Radio that Antigua would sooner start a scaled down LIAT, on its own, rather than to give Caribbean Airlines a monopoly.
“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, 1 million percent opposed to that,” Browne said.
He said Trinidad already enjoys being the supermarket of the Caribbean.
“Trinidad cannot literally be supplying all our food, the supermarket of the Caribbean and now just come and try monopolize air services or transportation, I will never agree to that. As I said the benefits of Caricom should be shared,” the prime minister stated.
“We are of the view that there ought to be a sub-regional airline,” he added.
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Well done Gaston well done!
Intend to open a low scale LIAT! What will be the new name? L I A D airline i suppose. T&T has been tried & tested both with the longesr serving Airline in the caribbean. Air Jamaica knows that too well. Show me what A&B can run successfully. Anything at all? A&B PM is a miserably failure. Gaston is a failure & LIAT is a failure. Put failure & failure together, it adds up to failure. Step back & don’t even think about it. No other caribbean leader would ever support you. They laughing at you. You already ran A&B on a rock.
Do us a favour shut up !!
you are a MUMMIFIED IDIOT…TRUPIT TRUPIT TRUPIT…
Boats can be an option😅😅😅
Time to draw a HALT to Yrinidad and Tobago monopolizing air travel in the caribbean.!!!.
“The benefits of Caricom should be shared”??? What benefits have these broke OECS governments received from LIAT other than huge debt? If Caribbean Airlines is willing to service all of Caricom and will employ the additional pilots and ground staff in each island, which they will need, then why not? We will be off the hook in paying for the airline and as long as there is demand, we will receive flights to all islands. The Caricom region is too small to maintain multiple airlines. One well run airline servicing all of Caricom is a good idea. Of course, smaller island hopping companies are free to operate as needed. The fact that the Trinidad Government owns the airline is of no consequence as they will have to pay the costs of running the airline.
👍
@Illuminati. What exactly has he done???? Apart from overseeing the demise of LIAT.
A&B PM cannot run A&B for a minute, how will he run a scale done bankrupt airline? Where is the money he said he got from Venezula to save LIAT? His lies are unbecoming of a PM……
Mr PM,
How come you can realize that but u cant realize that you are allowing a certain family to monopolize many things in this country?
You all need to see the big picture. You feel Trinidad care about us. The whole region import there products and still they refuse to help us.
Remember !!!
While two Caricom�leaders yesterday pushed for T&T to fulfill promises made to the region by the last PNM administration, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has made it clear that T&T is “not an ATM card.” St Kitts Prime Minister�Denzil Douglas and Grenada Prime Minister Tillman Thomas called for T&T’s new People’s Partnership administration to follow through on certain projects to which the previous PNM administration committed T&T. Yesterday, Persad-Bissessar’s chairmanship of Caricom’s National Security committee produced a proposal for a Passenger�Security fee throughout the region to fund its national security programme.
The PM has not mentioned this but I think he is concerned that if Caribbean Airlines take over LIAT, all the jobs will move to Trinidad and the Antiguan employees will be out of work. The PM has to work to protect Antiguan jobs.
Is it only A & B PM against Caribbean Airlines taking over LIAT? Haven’t read/heard the other shareholders stance. Thought Barbados was thinking of their own airline. Is the government planning to play with or mismanage the government’s purse by injecting monies into an airline? Strange when it comes to meeting their obligations for government services they find it difficult yet they always seem to find funds to boost their egos.
I think T&T monopolizing the aviation sector in the Caribbean is a step in the wrong direction, but I might be wrong…
LIAT’s problems weren’t unique at all. Look at all the former national carriers around the world who struggled to compete on the new aviation market of low cost carries… Some survived some did not. The difference was a matter of management.
Customer care is seldomly priority for monopolized companies. Why u think Caribbean Airlines had to be better, they had to be competing against Air Canada, AA, Jet Blue etc…
Our region maybe too small for complete open skies, but another player on the field would and should bring healthy competition… Like Caribbean Star, maybe?
May be these articles from may 2019 is the advice needed right now:
COMMENTARY: LIAT 2019 Limited (Part 1,2,3)
https://antiguanewsroom.com/commentary-liat-2019-limited-part-3/
The new airline in Antigua should be called TAP DAWG AIRWAYS.With Gaston Browne as the Chief Pilot and main Bottle Washer.
Wadadli PM is by far the most visionary and forthright leader in the Caribbean…. Don’t back down Mr. Brown, you’re on the right track. Stay focus and strident.. History will prove that you are correct..
Gaston is all big chat and cyan defend dat! We could not start an airliner even if he wanted. We Bruuukkkkkkkkkkk no wah!!! Whey de money dey to pay for new airline? Cha!!
Why not form a new low cost sub regional airline that can be a subsidiary of Caribbean airlines and regional countries have shared in.
Also FYI Mr Brown is not correct Caribbean Airlines is owned by both TnT and Jamaica each having shares in the airline with a hub in Jamaica and in Trinidad
The Jamaican Government owns 16% of Caribbean Airways.The T&T Government owns the remainder of the Carrier.
What ever happened to Barbuda Airways? Last we heard the plane had already been purchased. Too much fake news jack!!!
Truth be told the caribbean leaders don’t like or rate our leader PM Mr G.B who is arogant and full of lies so for all the people who like to beg as our PM like to borrow would not see the error of a fallen state cause they are to comfortable in there position to beg or borrow time to stop blaming and run the dam country tap sell the land to the Chinese and rich white people and look after your people in the little state of antigua since PM G.B in power all that was done was talking all the people hard working money and make his own personal business which is wrong and we still thinks he is a great leader
Tired of the rubbish
Besides the Jamaican & Trinidadian airlines, there’s others in our neighborhood, you know those French & Dutch islands. One of the French already services most of what List does, do we really need to replace the multi million dollar loss machine of List, with another loss machine?
Airlines are a financial nightmare, get it right and they print money, but a slight misstep ends on bankruptcy. Governments love to put their flag on them, kind of a psuedo air force, but try find a government run airline that is profitable. Maybe you’ll find one, but 99.9% of what looks lovely ke a ” national airline” is privately owned. British Airways, Air France, Italia, KlLM, Qantas , the list goes on, all ex government airlines that were failing when offloaded by their rich governments who got sick of bailing them out.
We need air services, not LIat version 3 sucking on the government teat
Look Mr PM get off your high horse and take a seat I’m ready to return to my country what na I’m barely surviving no job no money no nothing stpzzz
Interesting responses by the Honorable PM. It really is tough that one country seems to be dominating the Caribbean economy but the options are even worse.
I also do not believe its fair to Trinidad because they bailed out LIAT for years and had no say in the running of the airline. Maybe in the future we should not to turn to them to help us with anything.
Thanks Trinidad 🇹🇹
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