ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit Monday praised his Antigua and Barbuda counterpart, Gaston Browne, for keeping the inter-regional airline, LIAT, in the skies but acknowledged the need for governments to invest in inter-regional travel.
“I recognized as Prime Minister of the country the critical and unprecedented role that LIAT has played and was playing at the time to intra-regional travel, “Skerrit told a news conference as he defended his administration’s decision a few years ago to become a shareholder in the debt-ridden airline.
He said LIAT was helpful to Dominica, especially after natural disasters, “and I do not believe there is any other entity that can be reasonably expected to replace the functions of LIAT in the region.
“Governments investment in air transportation in the region cannot be replaced by private sector investments only. Governments must invest in inter-regional travel because inter-regional travel for so many islands is a public good.
“While you want entities to run professionally and great accountability, and greater transparency, there are a set of things you don’t expect from them because they have to fly into areas that a commercial airline, running as a private investment, will not want to go into, you understand, and that’s where LIAT was important.”
Browne said last week that Antigua and Barbuda is on its own about establishing a new company to replace LIAT (1974) Limited, which collapsed in 2020.
The Antigua-based LIAT (1974) Limited entered into administration in July 2020 following increased debt and the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
But Browne said he now recognizes that “Antigua and Barbuda is practically standing alone in terms of having an entity that a group of governments owns.
“What seems to be the prevailing thinking now is that most heads believe there are sufficient assets within the region. A study was done by the Caribbean Development Bank and the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States), and that was the meeting I attended in St. Lucia. The consensus was that there are sufficient assets to service the region.”
Browne said that there are “primarily private sector held assets, and they don’t see the need for the governments to invest in any national airline or regional airline.”
Before entering into administration, LIAT had been servicing several regional destinations and has since scaled down its operations and is now servicing Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, San Juan Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and St. Maarten.
In February, the Guyana government said while it has not committed to investing in the cash-strapped regional airline LIAT, it nonetheless wants to be “part of a solution for regional air transport.”
President Dr. Irfaan Ali told the Guyana-based online publication Demerara Waves Online News last month that his administration has been approached to help revive the Antigua-based LIAT that the governments of Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines have been talking with his administration about a “possible role” in a revived regional carrier.
Skerrit told reporters that the situation confronting LIAT, owned by the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, “is affecting all of us…and our economies in a dramatic way since the departure of LIAT from the regional scene.
“I am saying Dominica is prepared…to play our part financially, but you need a construct like LIAT that would be complemented by any private sector airlines to give you the kind of service you need in these islands.
“This is why when you look at most parts of the world, the treasuries of these countries, no matter how developed your country is, these countries play a financial role in the running of these airlines because of the greater good to the economy.”
Skerrit said that “so many questions” had been asked of him in the Parliament regarding LIAT when the initial financial assistance was made, including comments that “we are wasting money and so forth.
“I warned us in this country that we cannot do without LIAT for one day, far more for its eternal departure,” he said, adding, “ you just can’t travel.
“We can no longer book a flight this afternoon for tonight. You have to book a flight month in advance. To go from Dominica to Grenada, you have to go to Miami, “ and how many of us have an American visa?
“This is a regional emergency, inter-regional travel…but you are going to need a construct like LIAT, and that’s why I want to thank the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda for his heroic efforts in at least having a couple of the planes flying and providing the service all be it not to the original level that we were accustomed to,” Skerrit told reporters.
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