ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC—The Antigua and Barbuda government anticipates that LIAT 2020 fares across the Caribbean will be “affordable and reasonable” as the new airline prepares to begin operations.
The LIAT 2020 airline is being formed in partnership with Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline founded in 2013, and earlier this year, Browne had said that Air Peace would be putting in close to US$65 million, while the government is investing US$20 million.
Government spokesman Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst told reporters that pricing would be undertaken by the private sector operator, even as he indicated that he believes that “Air Peace would be smart enough to make those fares attractive for folks who would want to travel in large groups for example throughout our Caribbean using Antigua and Barbuda as the base.” Watch video
Last weekend, speaking on his radio program, Prime Minister Gaston Bowne said that the airline had received its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) but slammed the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) for further delaying the airline’s return to the skies regional.
Earlier this year, the Antigua and Barbuda government said it would pay US$12.1 million into an Escrow account to acquire other CDB planes as efforts continue to launch LIAT (2020) Limited.
The government has already made an offer to purchase the three aircraft owned by the CDB. They were used by the inter-regional airline LIAT, owned by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Still, it ended its operations on January 24 this year.
“I need to understand how a sales agreement can take over two weeks for them to vet. When you call them (CDB) out publicly, they get all vexed. But the sales agreement, they have seen it before, you know.”
Browne told radio listeners that the sales agreement “had been amended, and I have been messaging the acting (CDB) president Issac Solomon, and up to this day,” he has not received any response from the bank. He is hoping that the matter will be rectified by this week.
Hurst told reporters that the definition of “reasonable” airfares is intrinsically linked to the airline’s operating costs. While there is a desire to make flying between Caribbean countries more affordable for residents, the airline must recuperate costs as government subsidies are no longer viable.
He said that, unlike the past, when LIAT 1974 received support from regional governments, LIAT 2020’s ownership structure has significantly changed, and the governments would collaborate closely with Air Peace to ensure that air travel remains affordable for Caribbean residents.
“LIAT is now privately owned. It is 70 percent owned by Air Peace and 30 percent owned by the government of Antigua and Barbuda.
“We believe that the government of Antigua and Barbuda will share some of its ownership interest with other countries in the Caribbean. We want to do that so that the percentage of ownership in LIAT 2020 will not be 100% as it had been with LIAT 1974 Limited”.
“Therefore, the greater responsibility to determine what the cost of airfare will be in the LIAT case will fall to the private operator, Air Peace …and it is in their interest, of course, to reduce those airfares to the barest.”
Hurst said that Air Peace’s objective is to bring passengers from Africa to the Caribbean “and then use LIAT as a hub to move those passengers to other islands and countries across the Caribbean…
“So those decisions will be made largely by the private operator, and the governments, without a doubt, will collaborate with them. We want air carriage or air traffic to be affordable,” Hurst added.
and then 