The Antigua and Barbuda government will look to sort out concerns about LIAT’s flight routes when it meets with the company’s executives on Monday.
Based on a statement from Lionel ‘Max’ Hurst the government’s chief-of-staff, it would appear that the Browne-administration plans to use the airline’s recent request for financial assistance as leverage.
“We have a fundamental quarrel with LIAT and the way they have taken Antigua out of their flight path. Those are the issues that will be put on the table before any discussion can be had about money passing hands,” Hurst disclosed during a cabinet press briefing yesterday.
In what the government has described as LIAT’s “crazy” flight path, Hurst gave the example of a trip to San Juan entailing residents going to Dominica, where they layover for nearly four hours, before taking another LIAT flight that passed over Antigua en route to Puerto Rico.
According to the Antigua Observer, Hurst spoke hours after Sir Robin Yearwood, the Civil Aviation Minister, had told the Cabinet on Wednesday, that LIAT has asked the government for a sum commensurate with its 34 percent shareholding, to meet debt obligations to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
The company is servicing a US $65Million loan that it received in 2013 from the Barbados-based financial institution, to change its fleet from Dash-8s to ATRs.
