Invest in a regional airline says Dominica PM
Roosevelt Skerrit, the prime minister of Dominica, praised Gaston Browne, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, for his work to keep the inter-regional airline LIAT flying. He also said that governments need to invest in inter-regional travel.
“As Prime Minister of the country, I recognized the important and unique role that LIAT has played and was playing at the time for intra-regional travel,” Skerrit said at a news conference to defend his government’s decision a few years ago to become a shareholder in the debt-ridden airline.
He said that LIAT was helpful to Dominica, especially after natural disasters, and he added, “I don’t think there’s any other group in the region that can be expected to do what LIAT does.”
“Private sector investments alone can’t take the place of government investments in air travel in the region. Governments must invest in inter-regional travel because inter-regional travel for so many islands is really a public good.
“While you want things to be run professionally and with more accountability and transparency, there are some things you don’t expect from them because they have to fly into areas that a commercial airline that is run as a private investment won’t want to go into, and that’s why LIAT was important.”
Browne said last week that it looks like Antigua and Barbuda are on their own when it comes to making a new company to replace LIAT (1974) Limited, which went out of business in 2020.
LIAT (1974) Limited, based in Antigua, went into administration in July 2020 because of rising debt and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But Browne said that he now realizes that “Antigua and Barbuda is practically standing alone in terms of having an entity that is owned by a group of governments.
“What seems to be the prevailing thinking at this time is that most heads are of the view that there are sufficient assets within the region. In fact, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) did a study, and I went to a meeting about it in St. Lucia, where everyone agreed that there are enough assets to serve the area.
Browne said that “most of the assets are owned by the private sector, and they don’t think it’s necessary for the government to invest in any national or regional airline.”
LIAT, prior to entering into administration had been servicing several regional destinations and has since scaled down its operations and is now servicing Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, San Juan Puerto Rico, St Kitts, St Lucia and St Maarten.
In February, the government of Guyana said that it hasn’t promised to invest in LIAT, a regional airline that is short on cash, but that it still wants to be “part of a solution for regional air transportation.”
President Dr. Irfaan Ali told the Guyana-based online news site Demerara Waves Online News last month that his government has been asked to help revive the Antigua-based LIAT. He said that the governments of Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have talked with his government about a “possible role” in a revived regional carrier.
Skerrit told reporters that the situation with LIAT, which is owned by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, “is affecting all of us…and our economies in a dramatic way since LIAT left the regional scene.”
“I am saying Dominica is prepared…to play our part financially, but you actually need a construct like LIAT that would be complimented by any private sector airlines to give you the kind of service that you really need in these islands.
“This is why when you look at most parts of the world, the treasuries of these countries, no matter how developed your country is, the treasuries of these countries play a role financially in the running of these airlines because of the greater good to the economy”.
Skerrit said that “so many questions” had been asked of him in the Parliament regarding LIAT when the initial financial assistance was made, including comments that “we are wasting money and so forth.
“I warned us in this country that we can’t live without LIAT for even one day, let alone forever,” he said. “You just can’t go anywhere.
“We can’t book a flight for tonight this afternoon. A flight has to be booked months in advance. You have to go to Miami to get from Dominica to Grenada. How many of us have an American visa?
“This is a regional emergency, and we need to travel between regions…
But you’ll need something like LIAT, and that’s why I want to thank the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda for his “heroic” efforts to get at least a couple of the planes flying and service going, even if it’s not at the level we were used to.
