Source: Barbados Today
West Africa’s largest airline is to take a majority stake in beleaguered regional air carrier LIAT under a plan by the Antigua and Barbuda government to launch a new carrier.
Confirming the plan on Monday, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne revealed that Air Peace, owned by Nigerian lawyer and businessman Allen Onyema, is expected to have a 70 percent stake in LIAT 2020. The twin-island nation will own the other 30 per cent.
“This airline will be operated strictly on a commercial basis. It will not be a regional bus that will be operating on unprofitable routes. If indeed it has to operate unprofitable routes, there have to be some revenue guarantees,” Browne asserted.
“So, we are looking forward to the eventual operationalisation of this new LIAT, LIAT 2020, and we are committed to doing all we can to ensure its viability and sustainability.”
Browne said his government was in the process of establishing the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) for LIAT 2020.
LIAT, which is currently owned by the governments of Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, has been under court administration since 2020 and is operated by limited service.
Browne said that while some may criticise his decision to have a foreign private entity run the airline instead of regional governments, better could not be done.
“I don’t know that there is any other viable option at this point. I would accept that regional governments would have indicated a willingness to invest in a regional airline but in terms of having firm commitments, we are not at that stage and we need to move,” he contended.
Browne said that once the new arrangement is finalised, LIAT’s current two-plane operations and its limited route service will be boosted.
“They [Air Peace] will bring some assets and we will acquire some assets as well and, hopefully, we can have maybe five, six aircraft operating within the region under the name LIAT,” Browne said.
“I think LIAT is a strong brand. It’s a regional brand that should be maintained, and I am hoping that we can make this arrangement a reality so that we can protect the existing jobs and even create new jobs for those employees who were displaced, especially pilots.”
However, at least one former Barbadian LIAT employee who preferred not to be identified was adamant that he had no interest in what Prime Minister Browne was doing regarding the airline because of the treatment meted out to the former workers regarding their severance.
“To be honest, I am very apathetic to the whole thing . . . . I am indifferent, quite frankly,” the ex-worker told Barbados TODAY.
(EJ)