The Dominica Hotel and Tourism Association (DHTA) has written to Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit regarding its concerns over regional airline LIAT.
The DHTA said it is concerned over “the large number of flight cancellations, delays and re-routing of flights; the absolutely dismal customer service that has been meted out to the travelling public; and responses from the LIAT hierarchy to complaints and concerns raised by affected customers which have left much to be desired.”
The organization said Dominica has been hard hit by the LIAT crisis “because of its inordinate dependence on LIAT for its arrivals.”
It said major events such at the upcoming World Creole Music Festival and the Independence Celebrations could be affected if LIAT does not get its act together immediately.
The DHTA, in its letter, also outlines some suggestions for “corrective action and recovery.” The Association is requesting that the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and the Economics Division of the OECS Secretariat should be commissioned to research and publish the impact of the LIAT crisis on the ECCU economies.
“Secondly, and commencing without delay, there should be an investigation of the LIAT management’s decisions,” the DHTA advises in the letter. It also suggests among other recommendations, that “Dominica should move assiduously to have consumer protection legislation, with appropriate penalties and enforcement mechanisms, enacted in the countries of the OECS.”
Dominica recently became a shareholder in the regional airline.
Read full letter below.
I live in the US and I tried to fly Liat to Dominica last week via Puerto Rico for vacation. They cancelled the flight leaving me stranded in Puerto Rico.
Unfortunatley, based on this experience, I will not attempt to vacation in Dominica. Liat cost Dominica and my unfortunate hotelier money. I hope for the sake of Dominica Liat can fix its reputation.
haha, with all the millions he spending on liat… well we spending on liat.. His words will be on deaf ears. unlike st.lucia who have international airport we in Dominica have no leverage. running a country is like running a business, if you dont have the skill you shouldn’t have the job. yall take what you get.
Things have returned to normal.I travelled yesterday and the flights were on time.
A new airline is not the solution when LIAT is so heavily subsidised by the Caribbean Governments……The New Airline will never be able to compete….whenever LIAT has financial issues the Tax Payers of these countries bail it out….WHO CAN COMPETE WITH THAT????
There is no reason for LIAT to strive to be efficient under such extremely favourable conditions….
As suggested the market must be opened up with a level playing field and regulated of course !!!!!
What we deduce here, since it is subsidized by Caribbean Governments, it will never fully operate and provide adequate service. There is some truth in that. No exception, whatever is subsidized by governments overseas. They appear to be one and the same, no matter how near or far.
DNO thanks for deleting my comments thanks DNO it seem as if everytime people have possitive things to say without any political stuff and messages that can help develope things in Dominica,you all (DNO) never post the messages, THANKS AGAIN….
This is the mind of criticism we have needed for years. A shame it comes when all hell has broken loose. Competition in any sector is good. In relation to accountability, liat needs to be taught a lesson. And in relation to the use of legislation for the protection of consumers, this is well overdue. Liat can basically cancel your flight and you get zero compensation. Ridiculous. Very well writtenetter, extremely valid points.
Liat needs to learn the values that protect any decent organisation. Accountability, competence, professional behaviour, responsibility and please please please get some integrity! The company’s directors do not care. How do they expect lower level staff to behave?
This is the mind of criticism we have needed for years. A shame it comes when all hell has broken loose. Competition in any sector is good. In relation to accountability, liat needs to be taught a lesson. And in relation to the use of legislation for the protection of consumers, this is well overdue. Liat can basically cancel your flight and you get zero compensation. Ridiculous. Very well writtenetter, extremely valid points.
Liat needs to learn the values that protect any decent organisation. Accountability, competence, professional behaviour, responsibility and please please please get some integrity! The company’s directors do not care. How do they expect lower level staff to behave?
dear people in my recent emails i wrote about trying to get airlines like air caribe interest which is going in and out into the french islands of guadeloupe and martinique and goes as far as france and cayenne with larger jets they fly over dominica airspace every day yet we are blind towards trying to contact them to find their interest, i noted that they fly the same airplanes that liat are now introducing same is caribbean airlines based in trinidad which could not have flown to other countries but could do flight from trinidad, tobago and barbados using the same planes liat flies but was not allowed to fly to other countries, what is really going on?.
people there is a old saying, IF A LIZARD WAS GOOD MEAT IT WOULD NEVER BE ON PEOPLES FENCES.. IF liat was good and attractive dont you think another airline company would try and merge?..
what is now happening with liat was long coming, politicians in DOMINICA cannot see beyond their pockets, over the years people lamented the use of getting a larger airport and they never see the need for that, patrick john, miss charles, peirre charles, eddison james,skerrit all blind and continue to be blind, i strongly believe that any leader that cannot get a larger airport for dominica shouldnt even try to be in politics or go up for election. the governments ask people to invest, open small business, young people leave school every year with nothing to do. gone are the days one could go over to another island and find something to do. now things are hard all they do is stay in dominica and beg, as i see it DOMINICA have become a begging country, people beg for everything, well some of them get but majority dont and you can see how much they all are begging for a larger airport and cannot get one for dominica. the caribbean skies are now open even more and trust me the chinesse are working on something, soon you will hear a chinesse airline will be flying……. leaders open ur ears to the cry of the people, get them what they want so the begging can stop in Dominica.
DOMINICANS PLEASE TAKE NOTE.. THE ROSS MEDICAL STUDIENTS ARE FEDUP AND SO IS THE MANAGEMENT OF ROSS UNIVERSITY AND ALL SAINTS UNIVERSITY, SOON VERY SOON THEY ARE GOING TO MOVE TO ISLANDS LIKE BARBADOS WHERE THEY CAN TRAVEL EASIER TO GO TO SCHOOL. THESE DAYS PEOPLE CANNOT TAKE STRESS AND ITS EARLY BUT LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT SEMISTER WHAT WILL HAPPEN….. AFTER PEOPLE WORK SO HARD TO PROMOTE A COUNTRY LOOK WHAT THEY GET WELLL WELL WELL IF THATS THE WAY POLITICIANS HAVE TO RUNNNNNN A COUNTRY WELL WELL WELL. I FEDUP.
It would be nice if Sir Richard had a airline here.
It is a shame and shocking that passengers pay their air fare and they cannot get a flight, as arranged by LIAT.
It is not today that LIAT’s service is poor and slow. Passengers have suffered for years, no doubt ever since the inception of LIAT’s service.
The population of the world has grown but LIAT has not yet grown and progressed in service.
Why accept their money and the full amount if you, LIAT, are not able to connect them on time to arrive at their destination on time?
It is as if LIAT does not care. No amount of complaints and letters appear to make a difference to LIAT and does not move those executives in the least, to offer better service.
Definitely! Something must be done about LIAT’s poor, indifferent and uncaring service.
As is done with Canadian airlines and others, LIAT should be ordered to pay a penalty for late arrivals and departures. LIAT should also bear the cost of overnight stay at a hotel or offer equivalent sum of money to the passengers who are inconvenienced by its non-service, slow service, no-show lack of service. All in all, passengers should be compensated for this poor service.
Due to the identical problem which passengers had with LIAT, I recall when Ms. Eugenia Charles was then PM, she arranged that a Dominica official travel to Antigua to ensure that the passengers (and their luggage) who would be arriving for Carnival would not be stranded in Antigua, that they would get an immediate flight out of Antigua to Dominica with their luggage. This was arranged with her (her office) and LIAT. It worked well then. Since LIAT has not rectified its service to an acceptable level and it appears this expectation never will be, the Dominica government of today should do likewise at such times as Carnival and for the Creole Festival.
@Justice and truth, You are dead right about that. Liat has had that problem for a while. That’s why I cannot understand why Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit invested $8 Million dollars in this comes. If we had not dumped so much money into Liat the problem would not hurt that much because it is something we are use to. But what hurts is when we know something is terribly bad and we in turn invest $8 million on it, it makes us look even more foolish and irresponsible. Do you not agree?
Lord Jesus. Poor Dominica. We just keep getting the shaft by LIAT. Time to build an international airport. Forget LIAT.
This is an embarrassing situation trying to get from one destination in the Caribbean to the next. Most times the flight is always late, then to find out when you get instransit to board your flight to your next destination your are told 3 hrs after your boarding time, your flight has been delayed we will update you within an hour or two. To the upper management of Liat a transition should not be down within yor peak season, you need to train your staff who has direct contact with the passengers how to deal with situations, take responsibility for your error, compensate your passengers make them feel appreciated, customer service should be of higher standard. Liat is an establish airline with good reputation of safety and bad records of always being late. To the DTHA I aploy you for the letter, I travelled to Dominica last year it was a mess, I thought it would get better, I travelled last week to DA it was worst.
Good letter but it should be written in a language Mr. Skerrit understands. By this I mean Skerrit sure does not understand our pain neither does he care. The man gets out and returns without a problem and on top of that if liat delays him he is able to get a private jet to land him safely to Dominica anyway. Guys let’s be honest: Do you all really expect Skerrit to solve that problem even if he dumped $8 million on Liat?Is there another airline to compete with lIAT? If you all really want to see a change wait until he calls an election to see how he will get two or four chartered flights, loaded with tourists to come and vote him in again. The bad thing is those so called tourists will not help the DHTA since they will not go in a hotel and will be out next day after they plunged Dominica into more misery.
I hope and pray that this Years Creole Festival
will be successful,People are afraid to travel
because of Liat. The Misister of Tourism is concerned about the tourists season he seemed less concerned about the Dominicans who are planning to travel for the Creole Fest.
The priminister will fix the problem come election to carry his voters to Dominica from around the world. If they miss liat or it delay he screwed.
https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/petition-from-the-travelling-public-to-the-owners-of-the-caribbean-airline-liat
PETITION FROM THE TRAVELLING PUBLIC TO THE OWNERS OF THE CARIBBEAN AIRLINE LIAT
Sign the petition, anonymously if you must. If we cannot change LIAT at this point, then we will never be able to change it.
And if you make NO effort to DIRECTLY tell those in charge how you feel, then you deserve the same treatment next time.
The greatest form of employment in Dominica today is Welfare and the Red Clinic. These people cannot afford to leave the country and therefore do not need LIAT. The few that need to fly will have to take it as they get it.
You know how bad the airline is when people from England are flying via Miami and San Juan, simply to avoid LIAT. Friends of mine are. They’ve had too many bad experiences with LIAT to risk trusting them ever again.
Whilst I congratulate you in your efforts to get this untenable situation resolved I am questioning at the same time whether it might be a waste of your time to address it to Skerrit. He, as his previous comments regarding the poor LIAT service show, is neither interested nor inclined to speak up against one of his puppet masters. Mister has got bigger fish to fry right now – how can I possible squeeze a third term in with that wind starting to blow in my face and it appears to get stronger by the day. His confidence has been shaken and he is making more and more mistakes. Just look at that situation with the presidential nomination. Maybe one mistake to many?!
If you money and want to get broke fast, start an airline
Two words: NEW AIRLINE
Solution: COMPETITION
Whaou ! Congrats . Fantastic idea !
2 questions :
– Which airline ?
– Who pays ?
Tht was the best thing you could have said? Competition?
A new airline is not the solution when LIAT is so heavily subsidised by the Caribbean Governments……The New Airline will never be able to compete….whenever LIAT has financial issues the Tax Payers of these countries bail it out….WHO CAN COMPETE WITH THAT????
There is no reason for LIAT to strive to be efficient under such extremely favourable conditions….
As suggested the market must be opened up with a level playing field and regulated of course !!!!!
Caribbean Airlines will be able to compete because their fuel is subsidised by Trinidad. LIAT can not compete on price or even customer service.
I believe there is something “fishy” going on viz-a-viz the caribbean leaders. Everyone is looking to feather their nest but yet talk about CARIcoM, more like CARIcoN.
worst recent mistake mr skerrit make is investing dominicans money into that airline. i dont know why government want to hold on to that so bad…
Lack of vision
If Skerrit did not do that there would be no night landing so he gave in to LIAT
The Creole festival is already in trouble. People usually start booking flights from August and I can say for sure that many people are turned off by the bad news. I believe the festival committee need to go into damage control mode right now. The organizers should go into some type of arrangement with Guadeloupe and Martinique; maybe secure some chattered flights and create a website where people can book their flights.
If the committee does not take action the creole festival will be a disaster.
Liat brought 1000’s into Dominica for the 2009 elections so there should no problem organizing charters to bring in people for the Festival.
All we need now is for the travel arrangements of artistes, their entourage and equipment to be screwed up. I pray this does not happen. All because we allow ourselves to be held hostage by a monoply, which unofortunately the Govt. is part of.
I like those suggestions but we must be pragmatic in light of the backward thinking of the politicians in the region. it has always been ” Every Nun for himself” in the region. We talk the talk and walk into the doldrums of mindless, spineless decision makers.
Every island wants to impose their own fees on LIAT operation ,for example. magwe sa it cost $1400 to fly to Barbados not withstanding Hotel , transportation, departure taxes , hear and in barbados. How can we promote travel in the region when the people cannot afford to fly.
Our problem is way beyond LIAT I must admit. We can drop 10 more Million in LIAT’s bucket and things wont be different. In order for LIAT to serve us better ( Dominica) we need to have a thriving economy – there must be people traveling to and from Dominica in order for LIAT or any other airline to do good business. Let us be honest – In as much as LIAT management need to go let us selfishly examine our own situation. Passengers to and from Dominica cannot be priority to LIAT’s current logistics. While passengers are affected throughout the various LIAT destinations I do understand that the Dominica experience is worse. Why – because we are/were totally unprepared for such event. We have failed to secure our own interest- again spineless, gullible decision makers. Just like we always do we put our eggs all in the same frigging basket. We just don’t have the business that would let LIAT staff put us on the priority list even thru this meltdown.
As much as we would like to isolate the LIAT situation from the politics of the day no one can deny that we as a country could have done much much better to counteract the travel debacle. We would rather hear that we kick LIAT management in the nuts but we pacify the politicians who facilitate the bad performance by LIAT management. How many government politicians in the region that we hear blowing steam. A true sign of the mediocrity that we so cherish in the region.
Thanks to you on an honest comment .It would seem to me that the shareholders are comfortable with the status quo .. in all of this i have not heard any of them expressing outrage over whats taking place surprisingly our own PM.but yes i do agree we all must do our part and the parasite governments who don’t contribute need to step up to the plate or be cut off its not fair to the other islands that contribute ..
@ Mamizoo…..I disagree with your comment that…”we need to have a thriving economy..” for LIAT et al to take notice.
The framework and environment, one base on competition needs to be established first which people will have more confidence in, thus resulting in more flying visitors to DA and consequently enhancing the economy of DA.
DA suffers because LIAT has a monopoly share of access to DA unlike ST Lucia for example.
An international airport would present DA as hub for.. 1) Martinique and Guadeloupe and 2) in competition with Barbados and St Lucia. Direct flights to DA would see more people visiting and staying in DA.
My friend left Guadeloupe on Monday to go to ST.Thomas. She was supposed to change planes in ST. Marteen. When they got to ST. Marteen they were told “come back tomorrow to see if you get a flight because we don’t have any more flights to ST.Thomas today”. She was fortunate to get a site but some of the other passengers were not so lucky so they had to say another day in ST. Marteen. All thea B.S LIAT is doing caused alot of people myself included to cancel flights to Dominica for the Creole fest and for the Grand-Bay Reunion that is set for next year. The government need to support Seaborne Airlines. They have flights from PR to Dominica.
Seabourne cannot save dominica with flights from just PR to here.
8 million of our hard worked for tax payers money gone down the drain. skerritt buy his shares so win lose draw he set for life..wake up dominicans..
Amen…
Why write skerrit and not Gregor?
He is the PM. He should really know about this matter. What he will or could do is to direct the letter to Gregor (as you asked) and request that he respond.
I hope liat does not screw me for creole fest this year
Hold a condom ,expect it that way your Anticipation and Your reality will be the same and You wont be as diappointed
John Paul, with a name as this and a Christian one at that, you should be careful what you state. Of course, what is stated is imbedded in the heart. Nevertheless, should you have made such a comment? It is uncalled for, improper and indiscreet.
I had an experience having to wait for over 10 hours in Barbados, our flight was reschdule for St.Maarten -Tortolla, while waiting for so long the flight came and went another route and we diverted on another plane.
I think DOMINICA is the main country , that LIAT has no regard to.
I strongly believe that too..
Good that continued efforts are being made to have better airline service. Continue to press until something happens.
In the past two weeks I travel back to Dominica and what a night mare that was after I got to st Maarten for my connecting flight to Dominica on liat a flight that was suppose to be in Dominica at 6pm was dump in Antigua at 12 midnight and did not get to Dominica until the next day. As god as my witness I will never fly liat again they treat the customers as if we were given a free passage this us ridiculous something has to be done , the staff was rude had no care in the world wether people had young kids or not we as a country will never get any where if we don’t get an international airport our prime minster needs to get off his thrown no one will want to come to Dominica if they gave to go through all this hastle so tired of this
What You expect LIAT belongs to Governments!
Where will the money for this international come from ? Who will build and design it.Futhermore the planes leaving or coming to dom are seldom full so what airline do you hope to entice . Its all down to money and dominica does not have the money to build it nor does it have enough people travelling to warrent one. All you need liat to pull up there socks and start acting like an airline putting there customers first.
Great job DHTA, for finally speaking out,first liat needs new heads bc the ones that are their are blind.Secondly Antigua as the hub is a cancer for many years.St.VINCENT new airport should be the hub for Liat.2008 was a disaster with liat and getting passengers luggage in and out of Dominica.PM i urge you to reply to the DHTA and swift action with other caribbean leaders to get liat up to par.Finally when you get to Antigua the delay and by the time you get your luggage the bagage handlers helped themselves to you items which is very frustrating,i have been a victim a few times.
Good ways, to spend 8 millions….joke…heads must roll!
We Dominicans have patients but for how long . This is beyond. Change of management now . They are taking no responsibility of there mistakes taking local people for fools even the tourist that are here on there vacation. No respect no refunds for delays . Erase LIAT as an airline.
Air Caraibes, Caribbean Airlines & Air Antilles currently land at Vigie airport in St Lucia which has a runway length similar to that of Melville Hall. Why can we get these airlines to land at Melville Hall?
Now you are talking!
Why do these airlines NOT compete with Liat for the Dominica traffic ??????
Can it be that demand is insufficient.???
You want to know why, the taxes and landing fees on Dominica are too damn high.
***I’M IN FULL SUPPORT***
We can’t continue this way. We support our regional carriers but they MUST support and appreciate our/the consumers’s patronage.
They can show this by getting down to “real” business once and for all.
I am not totally blaming LIAT. The regional governments has much to be be responsible for with LIAT’s current business culture.
The government has never really held the airline accountable for its management culture.
This attitude from the governments MUST first change!! Otherwise, nothing will change LIAT!!
-Thanks
This is what happens when you put all your eggs into one basket. We have basically nothing to fall back on if LIAT were to go under.
I would like to congratulate the DHTA for championing this cause, whilst acknowledging that this issue and this action serves their interest.
With the $8M already invested in LIAT, the hand-tied-behind-his-back PM will find this letter and more specifically the suggestions made difficult to swallow, because his focus is returns on the investment, NOT DA economic interest.
We are sure to loose that investment. The DHTA have clearly done their research and homework citing liberalisation, customer protection and the appropriate place for discussing and dealing with this matter.
In the meantime the DHTA must suggest ways, we as customers/activists can help in a concerted effort to bring about change.
THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE PM, ALTHOUGH LOOKING AT ROADMAP GOING FORWARD HE SEEMS TO BE IN THE WAY AS A RESULT OF THE $8M INVESTMENT HE MADE.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Quite sure “He” did not make the investment. We made the investment without our knowledge or input. That $8 million did not come out of the PM pocket.
How is it possible for us (We) to make an investment without our knowledge. Technically he made the investment on behalf of DA as PM. No consultation, No referral, No answers to questions and so we are left in the dark to assume his expectations of LIAT.
Unless we have an international airport, do expect much of the same and costlier tickets for getting in and out of Dominica. And that’s a fact!
No international airline is going to fly even if you have an so called international airport the route is just not profitable.
Go to Hell, go to hell, go to hell, it is none of my darn business. I am only a shareholder
You want to fix Liat problems? Introduce the islands with a new airline.
Who investing in the new airlines??? Must be you .. you tlking like is easy like that