LIAT issues to be discussed at CARICOM summit
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne called discussions with fellow Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders on the future course of the inter-regional airline, LIAT, “inescapable” when they meet next week in Trinidad and Tobago.
The leaders will convene from July 3 to 5 for their annual summit, which coincides with the regional integration grouping’s 50th anniversary.
Browne has been at the vanguard of efforts to turn around the Antigua-based airline, which entered administration in July 2020 due to increased debt and the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic.
The governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines are its principal shareholders, and regional trade unions claim their people are owed millions of dollars in severance payments and other benefits.
“It is unavoidable that we address the issue of transportation.” I am aware that many nations in the integration movement regard this as an insular matter, but I believe LIAT should be respected as a CARICOM institution and that there should be a regional commitment to re-stirring it in the benefit of Caribbean people.”
LIAT, according to Browne, is required for improved connectivity “and to ensure that Caribbean people can move and move easily.”
“You can’t have a successful integration movement unless people can move,” he said, adding, “I just hope we can get past the insularity and national priorities.”
Browne stated that there are “regional competing forces that would like to see the demise of LIAT,” but it is critical to recognize the airline’s value in supplementing the efforts of Trinidad-based Caribbean Airlines (CAL).
“And that, in the end, some form of publicly funded transportation will be critical to achieving regional sustainability.” This mistaken concept that we must rely solely on private sector assets is not a sustainable solution, and Antigua and Barbuda feels that ultimately a re-organized, funded LIAT, a new LIAT leaving all historical difficulties behind, will be required. One that will run professionally and profitably, and will be the solution to our regional transportation problems.”
