St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves is telling Caribbean leaders to either pay up or shut up when it comes to LIAT. "None of them putting up any money, you know. Talk is cheap. I am telling them they must put up money. I am fed up to hear other prime ministers, absolutely fed up," Gonsalves told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
"They have all kinds of solutions about LIAT, all kinds of suggestions, but they are asked to do one or two things, put equity in it or provide market support,” Gonsalves noted.
Last week pilots grounded the regional airlines to demand that LIAT settle several outstanding issues. LIAT had to cancel 244 scheduled flights during the two-day strike.
The pilots, who are members of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA), called in sick.
They want LIAT to pay all monies that are owed due to illegal deductions made from salaries; settle all retroactive public holiday payments; address concerns about the status of current pension deductions and sign-off on a new contract immediately following the arbitration judgment.
The governments of St Vincent, Antigua and Barbados jointly own the regional commuter airline.
Gonsalves said regional leaders want the airline to fly uneconomical routes but are reluctant to subsidise the routes. He said if they want the service they should be prepared to pay money to maintain it.
"They do it for American Airlines, they do it for British Airways, they do it for Virgin but not for LIAT,” he said.
He added that "the prime ministers of this region who continuously talk about LIAT, stop talking about it and put money in it either in market support or equity."
Gonsalves expressed optimism that the new administration in Trinidad and Tobago would be helpful in keeping LIAT flying. The previous administration in Port of Spain supported LIAT, he said.
LIAT has been in talks with the Trinidad-owned Caribbean Airlines (CAL) and Gonsalves said that it had been able to assist in dealing with the backlog caused by the action of the pilots.
"Trinidad has been helpful. This is why when LIAT comes up at regional meetings. I say you have no standing to discuss LIAT, you are not a share holder. If you want to discuss regional air transportation…we can talk about air transport policy in the region and then we can get around to it, but don’t begin the discussion to talk about a company in which you have no shares”, Gonsalves said.
He told CMC he is not prepared to discuss "in the press right now" the ideas the shareholder governments have for solving the problems that led to the pilots taking industrial action.
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