est. 2007

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LIAT Problem Or Solution?

As long as LIAT remains in denial, pretending that is does not have a cost problem and believing that the capacity it has is fine, we are not going to participate and will source every alternative possible to boost intra-regional travel. Senator Allen Chastanet – St. Lucia Minister of Tourism   The Secretary General of…

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As long as LIAT remains in denial, pretending that is does not have a cost problem and believing that the capacity it has is fine, we are not going to participate and will source every alternative possible to boost intra-regional travel.

Senator Allen Chastanet – St. Lucia Minister of Tourism

 

The Secretary General of the Caribbean Hotel Association is warning about the ill-effects for Caribbean tourism because of the staggering costs for airlines operating in the region, CHA chair Berthia Parle says the situation facing intra-regional travel is not getting any better and threatens to collapse the small hotel structure in the Caribbean.

CHA warns of collapse of small hotels

 

Barbados has a predominance of small hotels. Over 110 of our 160 or so, licensed accommodation providers are defined as small, which according to the CHA is a property with less than 75 rooms. Senator Chastanet has called for an urgent meeting with newly appointed Prime Minister David Thompson to discuss the LIAT issue, which has directly contributed to a massive fall-off in intra Caribbean travel over the last year.

For Barbados, in terms of arrivals, Intra Caribbean travel, has up until recently, been our third most important source of visitors, often achieving a higher annual growth rate that all other traditional markets. LIAT’s return to a virtual monopoly, issues of capacity, service delivery and the resulting historically highest ever fares. These have been compounded by fuel surcharges and massive increases in airport user fees (departure taxes) which have all played a role in the reduction of regional travel.

To quote one of the national newspapers, long stay visitor arrival numbers to Barbados for 2007 have been ‘flat’.

Once we emerge from the peak winter season, which is only 10 weeks away, our hotels then have to grapple with trying to fill their rooms in the eight challenging summer months.

Already, our accommodation providers barely reach an average annual occupancy level of around 50%. Simply put, this means than over 3,500 rooms on Barbados are lying idle all 365 nights of the year. I hope that both Prime Minister Thompson and our new Minister of Tourism, Richard Sealy, can meet shortly with Senator Chastanet, together with all the other partners that can help devise a solution to this problem. – do a search for related articles by using the key word ‘LIAT’

Adrian Loveridge

21st January 2008

23 responses to “LIAT Problem Or Solution?”

  1. Undertaker Avatar
    Undertaker

    A ferry system was proposed, and this should have been looked at, a fast ferry system for around US50-75 to the Caribbean would have been great, and also fruits and vegetables would move quicker, a weekend like these 4 days would have been great to see 1 or 2 islands and return with plenty time to spare.

  2. LIAT LIAT Avatar
    LIAT LIAT

    Hey Adrian,

    What is your solution to the LIAT problem? Do we fold it or keep it going on while we try to reshape it again…? If LIAT was not here, who would service the Caribbean?

  3. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    LIAT, LIAT…

    Really glad you asked me.

    There needs to be a plan..

    1) Relocation to Barbados, the only logical operational base.
    2) Dramatic rationalisation of staff employed.
    If I remember Dr. Holder correctly, stated 732 staff and 17 aircraft.
    3) Out sourcing of maintenance, possibly by staff currently employed setting up their own company.
    4) Maintenance ONLY between midnight and 6am.
    5) A whole new look at maximising freight revenue. Those rotting mangos in Dominica are worth real money in Barbados.
    Even if it means re-configuring aircraft to take a mixture of freight and passengers.

    100 kilos of freight at US$2 per kilo or one passener. Which produces the most revenue?

    6) On this same subject, could the same aircraft fly freight between 10pm and 6am?

    7) Looking for smart partnerships, ie: Credit Card, Frequent Flyer programmes.

    8) A total overall of routes flown and at what times they operate.

    9) Employee ownership. Every employee becomes a shareholder in the company.
    Nothing drives people more than if they feel they own a slice.

    Thats my starters but I am sure BU readers can add several other dimensions and suggestions.

  4. only me Avatar
    only me

    you cant do maintenance at night only thats against all international regulations

    idiot Adrian

  5. only me Avatar
    only me

    Adrian why dont you buy out Liat and try all those losing idies idiot or better yet leave barbsdos and set up your hotel in ST Lucia since you r convinced st lucia is better than us

  6. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    Loveridges ideas seem reasonable and practical to me. What we should do is examine thier merits and seek to improve on them, rather than dismiss them because they are thoughts of a hated white expatriate.
    The continued harang of this man is silly to me.

    Its time that this blog starts severe censorship of racist remarks.

  7. Bajan Free Press Avatar
    Bajan Free Press

    Georgie Porgie,

    What mirror image do you have of yourself?

    http://bajanfreepress.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/errol-barrow-mirror-image-speech/

    Bajan Free Press

  8. David Avatar
    David

    The idea of attacking people with ideas or who are courageous to speak out is a Bajan pastime. Adrian L must be quite use to it by now. Barbadians like it when the water is nice and calm, they struggle in choppy waters.

  9. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    David…

    Thank you.

    Anyone with half a brain and a computer could look up the various overnight maintenance programmes that many airlines
    have implemented.
    For many airlines, like British Airways, its the only way it can be done. If your goal is to keep a 747 in the air for 13 hours out of 24 to justify the aircraft cost, you can understand why.

    As someone that has championed intra Caribbean Travel for over 20 years, of course I want LIAT to succeed, but only on its own merits.

    Our re-DISCOVER the Caribbean Show and programme has poineered this market and while everyone else was talking about it, WE DID IT.

    only me just demonstrates his/her ignorance.

  10. U-NO-HOO Avatar
    U-NO-HOO

    Adrian Loveridge,

    The change of government has certainly got you singing a different tune all of a sudden.

    Now you “want LIAT succeed”, whereas all we ever heard from you before was how horrible and expensive LIAT was and how it was all the fault of the Minister of Tourism in Barbados.

    What was it they say about white men with forked tongues?

    http://bajan.wordpress.com/2007/08/02/is-there-really-any-long-term-future-for-liat/

    Is There Really Any Long Term Future For LIAT?
    August 2, 2007 · 4 Comments

    logo.gif

    Just during a period when LIAT should be maximising its revenue, in the height of the summer season, yet again the airline is thrown into chaos; its passengers off-loaded from over booked flights and ‘hundreds of people being stranded for days’. This time it’s the industry action taken by LIALPA, the Pilots Association who are trying to reach agreement on new conditions of work. LIAPLA Chairman Michael Blackburn, stated ‘We are the ones flying the airplane. I’m the one that’s going to have to do an instrument approach at night in St. Vincent and I’m not doing it repeatedly after 15 hours of duty’.

    Adding recently, ‘there is empirical, unambiguous evidence which proves beyond any doubt that the number of accidents occurring which are the result of pilot error have been occurring at the end of very long duty periods where there has been inadequate rest’. No sensible Government or aviation regulatory authority could condone practices that may compromise safety, but it again comes back to asking the same old question.

    Just exactly how effective is the current management structure of LIAT?

    How could a human resource situation be allowed to deteriorate so badly that it virtually paralyses the airline, and as a result causes it to loose yet further hundreds of thousands of Dollars plus alienate travellers that are trying to prop-up the carrier? Another aspect of their management also greatly concerns me from a person that has spent virtually his entire working life marketing tourism.

    Once we go out of August, the industry generally goes into a shoulder period from the second week of September until just before Christmas. By now, I would have expected LIAT to have posted at least some special fares for that period, to allow potential passengers to plan ahead and book accommodation throughout the region. Is this again, the continuation of re-active rather than proactive management?

    Wait until there is a problem before responding, rather than ensuring the problem doesn’t arise in the first place. The ‘four to six weeks’ period that Barbadian Minister of Tourism, Noel Lynch, promised we would see lower intra regional airfares has now expired, with no such reductions in sight. Unless, at least some token reduced airfares are put into the marketplace very soon, my feeling is that the travelling public has almost turned off to the thought of a reasonably priced short Caribbean holiday.

    Especially, if this planned expense could be compromised by industrial chaos.

    Adrian Loveridge

    2nd August 2007

  11. Georgie Porgie Avatar
    Georgie Porgie

    u no hoo
    Anyone interested in tourism, or in travel between our islands you “want LIAT succeed.” But it is well known by those who know about air transport that LIAT is very expensive to run.

    I really don’t see the contradiction according to your argument Sir. Why don’t you read what is written, disregard who has written it and you obvious biases, and focus on what is right, or true, or good or useful, or what ever about what is said.

  12. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Loveridge,

    What happened to the Southern Farmers and Shell?

    There is a new prime minister and new government now, and the word is that you are no longer be interested in those “grimy black folk”. Have they have served their purpose for you?

  13. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    Mr. Anonymous..

    What have I done.

    1) Written to Stewart Gill, excutive director of SOL Oil.
    2) Written to Stuart Bruseth, Head of Global Media Relations at Royal Dutch Shell (you can find a copy of the letter by typing Shell Oil spill on Google Blogs)
    3) Written to John Donovan who operates a Shell pressure website.
    4) Had two lengthy conversations with a Barbadian now living in Montreal who is trying to arrange a meeting with Greenpeace shortly.

    Now Mr. Anonymous,

    WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?

    That is apart from criticising people that are actually trying to assist!

  14. Straight talk Avatar
    Straight talk

    What makes me wonder about this whole debacle, Adrian, is whenwere Shell aware of the problem.

    It is beyond belief that say 10000 tons of fuel is discharged from Oistins but only 9500 arrives at the airport.
    Someone, even with the most basic accounting procdures, must have been aware of the leak at a very early stage and no action was taken.

    A corporate decision seems to have been made by Shell to hang the consequences, carry on polluting, then quit the country and leave it to the lawyers to clear up the mess.

  15. David Avatar
    David

    Good job of being a good citizen Adrian L.

    Straight Talk we can say with certainty that the SHELL articles have been read by people at the company.

  16. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    Straight Talk…

    Totally agree.

    If we are only now (10-12 years later) finding quanitities of A1 kerosene at Oistins, there seems to be a total lack of monitoring and accountability.
    And what about our environmental and health people.
    Why have they been so silent?

    I hope the new Government will treat this matter with the priority it deserves.

  17. degap Avatar
    degap

    “Economic Rationalization”

    First of all relocating LIAT’s HQ to Bim will cost more money not less although “flip flop” Thompson would get some positive political mileage out of that move.
    “Rationalisation” of staff (now that has to be the mother of all euphemisms) would only lead to significant cost savings to the extent that LIAT is grossly overstaffed and that is yet to be established, but will ‘flip flop” Thompson really want to start his administration by increasing unemployment. LIAT has an unblemished safety record, so the last thing they need to do is to outsource safety. LIAT already as a frequent flyer program. Partnering with a regional bank is a good idea, but again this will not lower airfares. Lastly, an employee stock option plan already exists in some form and should be expanded and used as a model for other businesses in Bim.

  18. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Adrian Loveridge,

    You talking bare boo.

    So them farmers can’t write letters and make telephone calls too?

    I know that they had hired an attorney at some stage.

    (You forgot to mention that you rushed over to Gibbons a few days before the ELECTIONS to get your PHOTO taken with them…. let’s call that “lending moral support”. It takes a brave man to barge to the front of that crowd of farmers and force himself into the camera shots, even if he’s wearing a big broad-brimmed hat and heavy dark shades.)

    🙂

  19. Adrian Loveridge Avatar
    Adrian Loveridge

    Anonymous…

    Its truly amazing, just how many things you can get wrong.
    I was NOT the fellow with the hat and the sunglasses and I certainly do not remember being photographed.
    I was at Oistins at the invitation of the Southern farmers.
    They asked ME.

  20. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Adrian Loveridge // January 22, 2008 at 9:52 am,

    Well hey, we don’t know what you look like…. still can’t find any photos of you anywhere no matter how hard we’ve tried. (And we were looking real hard.)

    But at least it gives us some comfort to know that you are not a famous face in Barbados…. yet.

    We must really come by some day and visit you.

    Since you were so gracious to accept the invitation of the farmers, we at B F P E should also take a leaf from their book an extend a similar invitation to you. Not that we like you (yet), you understand, but we certainly do RESPECT YOU for the following reason:

    Peach and Quiet Hotel with 22 rooms would be generating somewhere in the region of $135,000 in room rate revenue at full capacity. Whether you are making profits or not (or HOW MUCH profit you make) is of no concern to us. What matters most to us is that we recognise that you would have made a significant investment (of both time and money) in order to achieve what you have done with your property.

  21. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Adrian Loveridge // January 22, 2008 at 9:52 am,

    Well hey, we don’t know what you look like…. still can’t find any photos of you anywhere no matter how hard we’ve tried. (And we were looking real hard.)

    But at least it gives us some comfort to know that you are not a famous face in Barbados…. yet.

    We must really come by some day and visit you.

    Since you were so gracious to accept the invitation of the farmers, we at B. FP + E should also take a leaf from their book an extend a similar invitation to you. Not that we like you (yet), you understand, but we certainly do RESPECT YOU for the following reason:

    Peach and Quiet Hotel with 22 rooms would be generating somewhere in the region of $135,000 in room rate revenue at full capacity. Whether you are making profits or not (or HOW MUCH profit you make) is of no concern to us. What matters most to us is that we recognise that you would have made a significant investment (of both time and money) in order to achieve what you have done with your property.

  22. LIAT, Political Football Par Excellence! «

    […] LIAT Problem Or Solution? […]

  23. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Jail all the top management, let the new ones know too they do crap they will get the same them.

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