Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne is hoping to have LIAT back in the skies by next month as shareholder governments are close to completing negotiations with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) for the purchase of the airline’s first aircraft.
A note following Wednesday’s cabinet meeting said Browne, who is also the finance minister, informed his ministers that a lease has been signed for an aircraft to allow the new LIAT (2020) Limited to file for an Air Operator Certificate (AOC).
The note said Browne estimated that LIAT (2020) Ltd will take to the skies in April 2024.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Information Minister Melford Nicholas explained that the lease agreement is “procedural” as the liquidation court case against the former LIAT (1974), which went bankrupt during the coronavirus pandemic, had the potential to stall the airline’s resurrection.
