Business View Caribbean | May 2019

10 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN MAY 2019 reiterate that his administration will not support the financially strapped LIAT if it continues to be business as usual. “There are other airlines and if, in fact, LIAT were to shut its doors, others would be willing to step in. Maybe that’s what we need. We need a fresh start,” he said. Saint Lucian pilot and aircraft mechanic, Silvanius Ernest, is also of the view that it is only a matter of time before the financially strapped regional airline collapses. “I am agreeing with the Prime Minister not to put a cent into LIAT until they can fix it” adding, “regional aviation is a mighty problem, no one is paying attention. With all the money that has gone into LIAT, what do we know about how the money is spent?” he asked. “It’s just about five years that LIAT bought brand new aircraft and see the mess that they are in.” Nevertheless, LIAT continues to service Saint Lucia and the wider Caribbean region, while the respective governments collect landing fees and other taxes that contribute to the high cost of regional travel, offering no meaningful proposal on the way forward for region travel. In the interim, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, put forward a strategic approach on LIAT and pledged his government “to resist any collapse of LIAT and any move to re-create its replacement.” Furthermore, without mentioning any of his Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) colleagues, Browne said, “Some of them are totally rudderless; the whole issue of oneness means nothing to them; they’re extremely selfish and I have to tell you they are not following in the tradition of John Compton and VC Bird.”