No decision yet by Saint Lucia on subsidizing LIAT

A LIAT aircraft

Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Allen Chastanet, has denied media reports that his country will be subsidizing regional airline, LIAT.

He said St. Lucia supports the airline but remains committed to “seeing the necessary restructuring and some real change in operations at LIAT.”

According to media reports, the Prime Minister of Antigua Gaston Browne announced on a radio program that the governments of St. Lucia and Grenada, which have been harsh critics of the Antigua-based airline, now see it fit to support it.

According to the reports, Browne said the matter was agreed to at a just-concluded OECS meeting in St. Lucia.

But Chastanet said this is not true.

“We have been consistent in our position on LIAT in that we propose that the airline operates on a strictly commercial basis,” he said. “We have not yet made a decision on subsidizing LIAT. What we have agreed to is a meeting to discuss some of the issues relevant to the airline. We look forward to continued dialogue with the OECS and other stakeholders on the future of the airline.”

The governments of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica are the main shareholders of LIAT.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

13 Comments

  1. Tre
    July 5, 2018

    LIAT needs a simple business plan; if you don’t contribute you don’t get service. Don’t fly to ST. Lucia and Greneda. It will save money and fuel which in turn will drive down travel prices. Guyana, Trinidad and Barbados are LIAT biggest and lucrative markets. . Dominica subsidizes LIAT with Ant, Bdos, SVG. Liat should take care of its shareholders first. If LIAT stops flying to St. Lucia, Greneda and ST. Kitts they will come crawling and begging to assist with cost of running the airline. Those islands stand to lose big time if LIAT pulls out. Time to get serious if LIAT is to be profitable.

  2. Francisco Etienne-Dods Telemaque
    July 5, 2018

    Why would a government of St. Lucia, wish to subsidize a useless, waste of time Airline when St. Lucia has two Airports, of which the International Airport has the longest Runway in the Caribbean?

    The St. Lucia, people and government of St. Lucia do not need LIAT, they have as many International Flights into and out of St. Lucia. As a matter of fact the only island in the Caribbean, which needs LIAT, and dependent on LIAT is Roosevelt Skerrit, and the red devils who votes for him.

    As far as I am concerned LIAT should be shut down today!

    I want it to shut down completely in order for our ignorant Dominican people t learn a hard lesson! 

    “We doh want no International Airport because Antigua and Barbados have one already eh.”

    Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah!

    “All Edison James want International Airport for is to smuggle more drugs into the country!”

    “It too expensive to build Labor Government have people to build wan at a fraction of what UWP want to…

  3. July 5, 2018

    They should fire up one of the planes, take the money, and just throw it into the engine. At least then they’d have confetti, whereas if they give it to LIAT it will be wasted entirely.

  4. viewsexpressed
    July 4, 2018

    How does LIAT travel to Dominica direct and from where, which island, country? Please explain, advise!

    Antigua is hub, so is Barbados. L:IAT, the Caribbean is island hoping because we are in close proximity to each other. If I am wrong on this one, please advise me, or update us with the issue, that is the logic that LIAT is an island hopping airline.
    Give some suggestions, lets just not play the crying and complaining game. Come with ideas, concrete suggestions. Lets fly LIAT,,,come lets talk!!

  5. July 4, 2018

    Why don’t the governments get together and sell the airline it nod doing nothing to benefit the countries just taking money out they can sell it split the profit if there is any and then negotiate with other companies to serve the islands.

  6. Malatete
    July 3, 2018

    LIAT do not have to be based in St. Lucia. They could move to Barbados, which in my mind would be better logistically and save costs. I am also convinced that if St, Lucia agrees to subsidise LIAT we would not see that reflected in an improvement in service performance. Last but not least I do find it rather bold for mr, Browne to pressurise another OECS member if he is not prepared to give something in return.

    • Malatete
      July 4, 2018

      PS. The aircraft in the caption is an old “Dash-8”, delivered to LIAT in 1990 and withdrawn from their fleet. As far as I know the airline ceased to operate this type of aircraft and replaced them all with ATR42 & 72 types of which they have 10 (….in reality LIAT are a small airline).

  7. zandoli
    July 3, 2018

    Instead of these never ending subsidies, why don’t these geniuses eliminate the various fees, allow LIAT to fly full planes. They add all kinds of fees to the price of a ticket, LIAT flies half empty and then they ask the governments to kick in money for LIAT to operate.

    Very smart.

    • Kean Black
      July 3, 2018

      the govt boy, a waste. But when young blood try to get into politics to make a change we as a people don’t want to vote then in. or we discourage them. hence we are stock with a bunch of genius jokers.

    • July 6, 2018

      Because the fees also deter competitors, who do not get subsidies.

  8. RandyX
    July 3, 2018

    Liat go and ask the regime leader in Dominica, who without doubt is your best customer. He is swimming in money and can afford to throw another 8 million away.

  9. jamie
    July 3, 2018

    Liat is a waste of time and should have been null and void forever,the entire management team is a waste,i can never fly this airline again,plus the ANTIGUA connection,is a total ripoff and some of the workers are thieves.I have had my items stolen on two trips in the past.

    • I am mine own
      July 3, 2018

      It is terrible that people must connect somewhere to get to Dominica. In Antigua, we experienced awful delays on LIAT and we were the only people on the plane. If we want to encourage more tourists to visit our beautiful island, we must see to it that the government taxes do not overwhelm the budgets of those wishing to vacation here.

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available