There is a newly elected government in Guyana preceded by one in St. Kitts and there is the T&T general elections announced for 7 September 2015. It seems our governments (politicians) around the region have allowed themselves to be consumed by domestic issues and the idea […] of promoting regional cooperation has been relegated on the list of priorities. Caribbean people are funnelled more news about the European Union (EU) and other common markets around the globe than about Caricom. A little commonsense suggest if the 15 members of Caricom are to achieve optimum benefit from the creation of a regional space, the ability to transport people and goods (services) efficiently is a nobrainer. If Caribbean people are serious about optimally leveraging the resources of the region for economic benefit the role of LIAT must be critically evaluated as the sole regional airline. It is evident, even to aviation illiterates, LIAT has been mismanaged largely because of political interference and poor governance practices for many years.
In July 2013 the Caribbean Development Bank gave (lent) LIAT shareholders USD65 million dollars to finance a refleet. Again a little commonsense supported BU’s expectation a viable businessplan supported the decision to lend (borrow) a significant amount. It therefore came as a surprise the industrial relations challenges during the transition from Dash 8s to the ATRs, the challenge selling the Dash 8s to sustain cashflow, the petty insular and puerile exchanges between LIAT shareholders and other players, unable to pay salaries etcetera.
What is already evident – new ATRs not withstanding – Caribbean people continue to witness an overstaffed and debt riddled LIAT continuing to compromise the region’s ability to provide efficient and reliable transport. There is the popular quotation that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Whether we point at the obvious incompetence of the Board and management, meddlesome politicians and recognize the challenges posed by the vagaries of our region. It is not enough for the largest shareholder of LIAT to operate business as usual.
When the HOGs meet from time to time is it unreasonable to expect LIAT and regional transportation should always be high on the agenda? If LIAT provides a service to almost all the member of Caricom is it unreasonable to expect financial support must be pledged? Why would other Caricom countries be persuaded to throw good money at LIAT at this stage given the deterioration of the balance sheet? What does it say about Caricom that it is unable to fix the LIAT problem!
BU is not competent to deliver a judgement on whether there was transparency in the decision to replace the faithful Dash 8s with ATRs. We are however competent to say that Barbados as the largest shareholder needs to wrestle control of the airline. Barbados and the other shareholders do not have the resources to adequately recapitalized LIAT. BU perishes the thought there is a policy by the Barbados government to do nothing in order to force the emergence of a debt free airline.
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