Antigua PM Against Plans To Establish Rival Regional Airline

JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Prime Minister Gaston Browne says he will not support plans to establish a rival airline to the financially troubled LIAT.

Prime Minister Browne said he is aware that Antigua and Barbuda does not have the shareholding majority in LIAT, to stop any moves by the Barbados government to establish the new airline.

“Well, I imagine we don’t have any legal basis on which to stop them, we just hope at the end of the day, common sense, reasonableness and equity will prevail.

“My understanding is that Barbados is considering forming a new airline, and to collapse LIAT and it is unfortunate that they are now seeking to take that position.

“I have actually seen a proposal … in which Barbados is now seeking to literally collapse LIAT to take several of the planes and to form the new airline,” Prime Minister Browne said on state-owned ABS Television.

LIAT shareholder governments are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Browne said the move to establish the new airline is contrary to the spirit of Caribbean integration.

“I do not think that this is in the spirit of good relations, and I just hope that the other shareholder governments will understand that; look, at the end of the day, we all share common space in the OECS and CARICOM, we are our brothers keepers, and for us to take those extremist positions in order to promote whatever national agendas we may have, is totally unacceptable,” he added.

Antigua and Barbuda has already voiced its opposition for plans to relocate the base of the airline from Antigua and Barbuda to Barbados; but, St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said that the decision taken at a meeting in Bridgetown earlier this year was based on the realities of LIAT.

Browne said that the relocation would result in job losses and negatively affect his country’s economy.