Nevis Flights

After losing millions in what was considered “a competitive environment”, LIAT was forced to increase air fares, says chief executive officer Mark Darby.
       
In a Press release issued yesterday, he said LIAT had increased its fares by $20 since October last year before merging with Caribbean Star, mainly because the company was losing millions because of the region’s extremely high maintenance costs.
 
“The fares in the market today are appropriate and realistic as far as our costs are concerned,” Darby stated in the press release. “Overall, our fares are realistic, given where our costs are today.”
 
The CEO stressed LIAT was forced to battle with exorbitant maintenance costs for its 12 aircraft, with a quarter of its budget going to fuel consumption alone.
 
He added that LIAT was forced to deal with special circumstances which affected its fleet, like Sahara dust, and volcanic ash from Monsterrat, which allowed an engine life of only 3,000 to 4,000 hours of flight time, compared to 8,000 hours for similar planes used elsewhere in the world.

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Bridgetown, Barbados – May 20, 2007
By Rickey Singh
 
Do not expect the principal shareholder governments of LIAT to back any move to have American Eagle flying inter-island routes in competition with the regional island-hopping carrier.
 
That was the firm warning on Friday from St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, current chairman of Caricom who has lead responsibility for regional air transport and civil aviation matters among the Community’s Heads of Government.
 
Gonsalves, just back from Cuba where he was undergoing medical treatment following a traffic accident at home, said that the recently announced move by St Lucia to introduce American Eagle, perhaps by July, to fly between that country and Barbados, and possibly later to Trinidad and Tobago, came as “quite a big surprise and disappointment” to him.
 
He said there was no consultation on this matter by the St Lucia government, which is a minority shareholder in LIAT and has had representation on the airline’s Board of Directors.
 
The announcement came recently from St Lucia’s Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Allen Chastanet, without details on how the arrangement would work to the advantage of regional air travellers.

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