Antigua and Barbuda has made an offer to purchase the three aircraft owned by the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and had been used by the inter-regional airline, LIAT, which was dissolved late last month.
A statement issued after the weekly cabinet meeting said that Prime Minister Gaston Browne, during a Zoom meeting with CDB and representatives of the LIAT (1974) shareholders on Tuesday, made the offer to purchase the aircraft. The airline, which is owned by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines ended its operations in its current form on January 24 this year.
The airline, which had been under administration since July 24, 2020, ended its operations with the court-appointed administrator, Cleveland Seafort, in a letter to staff.
But he indicated that it would not be shying away from its obligations to them on severance, vacation pay, retroactive pay, and any outstanding salaries.
“The company recognises its obligation as it relates to any of the [aforementioned] applicable entitlements, which will be provided to you under separate cover within 45 days of this letter after the respective computations have been completed.”
In December last year, Prime Minister Browne delivering his country’s national budget said the CDB would play a critical role in solidifying the arrangement among the governments, adding that this would set the stage for finalising the arrangement with Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline founded in 2013, “so that LIAT 2020 can begin operations, thereby securing a promising future for regional travel.”.
According to the Cabinet statement, Browne told his colleagues “of his offer to purchase the three aircraft which the CDB owns, and which will be utilised by LIAT (2020) Ltd. now that LIAT (1974) Ltd. has been dissolved”.
He did not indicate as to the amount being proposed to acquire the aircraft, but the statement said that the talks were due to continue this week.
“Following the consummation of the sale, the three aircraft will form the basis of the fleet that will cause LIAT 2020 to become a viable entity. It will partner with Air Peace to provide the much-needed intra-regional and extra-regional services to move people and cargo throughout the Caribbean,” the Cabinet statement added.
I am willing to bet that King Skerrit will soon join the “Trough” and find some way to provide precious funds from our National Treasury to Brown Paper Bag. The last time around, King Skerrit gave Brown Paper Bag EC$8,000,000.00 to fund a now defunct Leave Island Any Time Airline. From AM to PM and in between, Labour working diligently to take the country backwards in time.
I guess he and star boy skerrit have a deal to purchase it two most corrupt in the Caribbean
Forget about Antigua.Think of how you can Skerrit and DLP out of power with your lies,propaganda, fake news and high level of stupidity.It is amazing that Starboy of stupidity can keep people like you in a cage for so long.
If LIAT is owned by the other countries besides Antigua, why is Gaston Browne the only one speaking on behalf of the airline?
The guy is an egomaniac. He likes to massage his own eggshell ego. Brown Paper Bag is feeling the heat from the majority of his countrymen. So, to change the narrative, he is using resurgence of LIAT as a decoy.
The Antigua government is up to its chin buried in debt. Where it’s going to get the finances to procure the three planes? This is a desperate effort to hoodwink his credulous parakeets and cockatoos that are adept at mimicry.
@zandoli, because he is a fool. This man and his government is objecting to CA expanding in the region, Caribbean airlines (CA) is an airline that has been operating in the region for decades and is owned by a caricom government. Yet he would rather partner with Air peace an airline with a questionable history.
This is indisputable. The statements coming from the cabinet of Gaston are mostly for propaganda purposes to shore up his appallingly performing kiskastocracy.
The ALP administration is under mammoth pressure from the electorate of Antigua and Barbuda. This announcement about the purchase of planes from CDB is a red-herring to distract attention of the news media and the citizens from the overwhelming multiplicity of crises the government faces.
Here are some examples: healthcare in total shambles, steep rise in the cost of living because of new taxes, unaccountable US $1M from a charity org. for Barbuda since 2017, inability to service the government’s contracted workers and companies. This list of inadequacies and missteps is inexhaustible.
Like Roosevelt, Gaston is intellectually unfit to competently manoeuvre the Ship of State in these turbulent economic times. Antigua is governed like a rudderless ship. It’s a FAILED STATE!