Known by many to be associated with late flights and lost luggage, regional airline LIAT hopes that the acquisition of new aircrafts and additional engineers will provide the company with a better image.
In an interview with Caribbean journalists during a media workshop in St Maarten recently, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the airline Brian Challenger said that these two measures are expected to address some of the challenges faced by the airline and in turn improve its efficiency.
“We are looking at hopefully…[to] acquire some new aircrafts sometime in the not too distant future-exactly when I cannot say. That will be a big improvement in the efficiency of the aircraft…” he said.
“…More immediately [we are] looking at strengthening our engineering department to ensure… that we have greater support to ensuring that the aircraft [is] able to get out and back into production more rapidly than they are at present. We do have a constraint in the number of engineers that we have and that’s a big challenge for us,” Challenger noted.
Challenger said that the limited number of engineers on staff have created a problem for the airline over the years.
“Sometimes the aircraft breaks down, we have to move an engineer perhaps to St Maarten… and you’re taking one away from what he would be doing in Antigua or in Barbados in terms of basic maintenance. So its a chain of events,” he explained.
He reiterated that these newer aircrafts would be “a big help in [solving] some of the challenges that we face.”
DOMINICANS JUST LOVE FREEBS FOR AN AIRLINE THATTHEY HAVE NO SHARES IN. It time for LIAT to boycott so that they can use fig boats to travel the caribbean, because no Airline would not be able tolerate the arrogance of Dominicans.
LIAT is not a free for all, you guys travel on other airlines and they treat you all like dirt and you say nothing. American made 300 passengers sleep in puerto rico on the Airport and there was silence. Caribbean Airlines long delays caused you all to miss connections, British and Virgin arriving late for your connections to LIAT and you guys have the audacity to belittle liat?
If it wasnt for LIAT you guys would not get night landing status.
It’s time for the people to start speak about the good that the agents did for them, look at all dem provisions that liat carry for free from Dominica to the rest of the region, some of you have friends working for LIAT and this is the thanks that they get.
Its time for the agents to speak out because its not easy dealing with people like us.
God Bless LIAT, THE MORE THEY CURSE YOU, THE MORE YOU’RE BLESSED .
@Creative: You all need to read about Ticketing agreements with your carriers before you make yourselves look like fools and cause people to laugh. When the announcement are made by LIAT, they advise the station that the flight will be going too.
Another thing about your tickets is that if you have separate tickets, NOOOOO airline is going to take responsibility for your onward journey, the contract between you and LIAT was to take you to Puerto Rico and no to the USA.
they really say that black people dont educate themselves.
@carribean man: Anybody can steal more than Dominicans? You guys top the list in Antigua for theft.
@SANTA: For your information LIAT ran CARIBBEAN sTAR AND sUN TO THE GROUND Not even the mighty Stanford could stand the competition because he was loosing millions everyday. You think it’s easy to operate an Airline service in the caribbean?
@chesney seaman: yeah that makes sense, its just that am tired of seeing those Dash8s aka ”tin can planes”…… but the new Q400 would be great
@Piper: yeah i know, thanks.
WE NEED ANOTHER CARIBBEAN SUN AND STAR….BUT WITH LEGIT OWNERS OF COURSE LOL.. WHEN THE COMPETITON WAS THEIR THEY USED TO BAWLLLL NOW THEY DOING WHAT THEY WANT AGAIN WE NEED TO CUT DEM DOWN LIKE GRASS
bad management liat o no bad bad buisness
i hope they will stop stealing the passengers stuff when it over night in antigua the company need to rethink .
@hmmmmmm:
ERJS would not be as efficient due to the fact that the seating capacity when compared to the atr’s and dash 8s would most likely be smaller. They would also have to get many other engineers and pilots that are trained on those specific aircraft.
It would be nice though to have liat acquire an ERJ-175 or 190 and possibly at least an airbus a319.
or again a boeing 737-600 or lower leased to them.
@hmmmmmm:
The Dash 8 as we know it is no longer in production. It has been replaced by the Q400.
I agree with the comment by COOL, when it is stated that” reservations system is internet based”, and LIAT could cut a lot of cost encouraging that. LIAT, however, needs to change the way they do business. I had a very bad experience with LIAT when I purchesed a ticket over the phone from LIAT’s office in Roseau, at a time when I had suffered a significant loss in my family and had to fly home to DA.. The ticket was emailed to me and all went well getting to DA. When my day came to leave on that same ticket, LIAT decided to fly to Antigua, unscheduled, and caused me and many other passengers to miss connecting flights in PR. LIAT’s response to me was that I had an ELECTRONIC ticket and they were not responsible for people who had bought electronic tickets(remember I did not purchase on line at all). They only serviced people who had paper tickets, which was one man, returning to Canada. So while they are trying to keep up with the times and go to internet reservations, they need be be responsible no matter how a customer purchased the ticket, because is the same money being paid to LIAT for their over-priced fares.
I also agree about looking real hard and close at those so called managers, starting with the one in Roseau, who can’t even offer a customer the privacy of his office to discuss a matter, rather he speaks to you at the counter, in front of all the other customers doing business at the time.
I have always said the Governments of the Caribbean need to hold LIAT accountable and put some guidelines and regulations in place, so they will provide better service to the passengers, but all this time no one paid any heed. Now everyone is seeing how it affects tourism negatively, but what about the natives? Don’t they deserve comparable service to what you want for tourists?
I hope the new aircrafts are not Dash 8’s!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some ATR’s and maybe a few ERJ’s would be great!!!
And ask for the ground handling and airport staff!! COMPLETE SHUFFLING NEEDS TO BE DONE!!
I will believe that when I actually experience it! I am just fed up of Liat and their inefficiencies, and I believe their monopolistic power is the root of this.
Fly your kite Liat!
and its wise they revisit those existing managers who are very incomptent and think that liat is their father’s estate.
liat needs new blood throughout the region and also they really need to do away with the town offices as the reservation system is internet based and to cut cost the no longer require staffing for booking as they travels agents take that mantle up as while as call centres and online…
liat must also ensure that the have managers who are qualifed in terms of degress etc, as they have suffered tremendously from poor capability throughtout the region in terms of proffessionalism at management and HR aspects…
With a new approach of ground handlers cutting out the over heads staffing they can be a better service provider to the customers, as their safety record is defintely world class so if they can get that into their customer and HR aspects they will be moving along the right path.
LIAT needs to change their way of doing bussiness, and the Govt’s of the carribbean have to put the pressure on these guys.
Management needs to go and it won’t be business as usual.
LIAT have disrespected the people of the region long enough and due to lack of compition is taking us for granted.
I am looking to see some drastic change