Regional airline denies reports of mishap; resumes service to Grenada

Piarco International Airport

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – The regional airline, LIAT, has denied reports that one of its aircraft malfunctioned while attempting to land at Piarco International airport in Trinidad on Friday.

The airline also said that it was resuming normal service to Grenada on Saturday after suspending the operations due to industrial action by employees in that country.

In a statement, LIAT said that the aircraft which operated LI 706 from Trinidad to Grenada on Friday landed at the Piarco International Airport safely and that “a normal landing was carried out and there was no damage to the aircraft or injury to any passenger or crew.

“After engineering checks on the landing gear the aircraft was declared serviceable by the company’s engineers and was placed back into service,” the airline said.

The airline said that it had also been informed that there had been an “incident” in Port of Spain, but said these reports “are false and no aircraft incident occurred”.

LIAT, which suspended its service to Grenada on Friday, said that “normal operations are expected to resume with the first scheduled flight from Grenada on Saturday August 7.

“While every effort will be made to accommodate the affected passengers on Saturday, passengers on LIAT services to and from Grenada are advised to contact airport authorities for information on the status of their flights,” the airline said, apologizing to passengers for “any inconvenience resulting from the suspension.

Meanwhile, LIAT employees in Grenada have ended two days of industrial action even though no  agreement has been reached following talks between the Technical and Allied Workers Union, (TAWU) and the airline.

Labour Minister Karl Hood and Labour Commissioner Cyrus Griffith also attended the talks.

Griffith told reporters that the talks will resume on Tuesday.

Earlier, TAWU had warned that it would not continue discussions with the airline if the workers brought from other Caribbean islands did not stop working immediately.

“LIAT violated the immigration laws of our country and therefore we are meeting to resolve this issue,” TAWU president Chester Humphrey said.

He said he was satisfied that the Grenada government did not support the move by LIAT.

“We will not resolve this issue as long as foreign workers are imported to break an industrial struggle, especially when these foreign workers are in violation of Grenadian laws.”

LIAT workers in Grenada had taken industrial action in a bid to deal with a number of outstanding issues including working conditions and wages.

In June, the Labour Commissioner had issued recommendations aimed at ending the dispute, but Humphrey accused the airline of not responding to the initiative until late on Thursday.

The action by the workers had severely disrupted LIAT’s operations at a time when many Grenadians and visitors are coming for the island’s Carnival activities that climaxes this weekend.

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8 Comments

  1. Skwalki
    August 9, 2010

    If they don’t like the job, then they should resign and get other jobs. Strikes just annoys managers and is a pain in the backside for customers. Don’t strike, just go and give others a chance to get a job.

  2. Anthony P. Ismael
    August 8, 2010

    Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail, and all parties will arrive at a working solution that will continue to provide normal air travel to the region. Additionally, customer service commericals targeting regional travelers could also help to educate travelers about expected behavior at regional airports.

    The Metropolitan Transport Authority MTA came up with a great slogan after 9/11:”If you see something, say something.” It helped to build awareness in persons who otherwise would ignore their everyday surroundings.

    Lack of consistent law enforcement at regional airports have served to create a continuous hostile atmosphere at regional airports. This behavior has remained unchecked for decades now. I have flown to some of these airports and atmosphere is interesting to say the least.

  3. justice
    August 8, 2010

    LIAT NEEDS TO CHECK THIER FLEET OF AIRCRAFTS BEFORE WE HAVE A MAJOR DISASTER IN THE CARIBBEAN…I WAS ON A FLIGHT A FEW MONTHS AGO AND WE HAD TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY STOP IN GUADELOUPE BECAUSE ONE OF THE ENGINES SUDDENLY SHUT DOWN….LUCKILY WE MADE IT DOWN WITH ONE ENGINE….THIS IS NOT A JOKE PEAPLE…LIAT IS MILKING THE CARIBBEAN …WHEN THEY START TO FALL OUT OFTHE SKY IT WILL BE TOO LATE….LAWSUIT WILL SUCK THE FAT OF THE LIAT MANAGERS.

  4. Objective
    August 8, 2010

    The new strategy to inconvenience passengers at evry opportunity should be absolutely discouraged. Liat mamnagement have every right to bring in emergency staff to replace workers who are moe and more spoilt.

  5. K. S. Miller
    August 7, 2010

    Having a militant union and workers with backbone will bring the employer to the negotiating table which would lead to better working conditions. I wish we had half of that here in Dominica! LIAT is giving the travelling public too much shabby service, let them take that!!

  6. August 7, 2010

    this is very intersted, thats the kind of Caribbean integration that our Government are talking about, no wonder we in the beautiful caribbean get now were. we are more devided than anything else.

  7. janicia Dubique
    August 7, 2010

    Liat has to start treating their staff better thatn that, while the management are having a ball of a time getting exorbitant salaries while their staff get a meagre salary. First of all they never give the staff a true picture of the com financies, they say one thing today and a completely different story tomorrow. They have no competition, high airfares and the service is getting from bad to worse.

  8. Loubiere
    August 7, 2010

    I’m glad that the employees took a stand in Grenada and they should do that in each country, the working conditions of having to deal with difficult caribbean people everyday, taking verbal abuse, physical abuse and the type of salary is not acceptable. The employees deserve better.

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