The new LIAT could start flights within weeks, as the airline, which was established in 2020, received its first two aircraft. The LIAT 2020 airline was formed in partnership with Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline founded in 2013.
The representative for Air Peace Caribbean, Hafsah Absulsalam, said the first order of business is to acquire the Air Operators Certificate (AOC) to ensure the launch.
“Within weeks we are hoping to launch the airline. We will be hitting the road with our marketing campaign to tell you what our services are about. Naturally, the islands where we take our demonstration flights will be the first to be added to our schedule. With that in mind we are getting our operational readiness in place to ensure us able to begin operations,” she said.
The two jet aircraft arrived minutes apart with the new company logo, LIAT 20, and were greeted with a water cannon salute provided by the Fire Department along with cheers from those gathered. Speaking last week at the ceremony in the capital of Antigua for the arrival of two E-145 jet aircrafts that will form part of the new Antigua-based airline, LIAT 2020 Ltd, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne told the ceremony that it was in 2020 during the dark days of the COVID-19 pandemic, that his government had the vision to register the company LIAT 2020.
“No one would have expected that a small island state, one of the most vulnerable countries that had endured a most devastating impact from COVID-19 in 2020, would have the courage to plan were not on board for the new ride. He said the regional leaders wanted to bury LIAT (1974) Ltd, even as he saw the COVID-19 pandemic providing an opportunity to “right-size” the airline.
The new airline will replace LIAT (1974) Ltd, which was first established in Montserrat in 1956 but folded in January following increased debt and the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this year Browne had said that Air Peace would be putting in close to US$65 million, while the government is investing US$20 million.
Prime Minister Browne told the ceremony that St. John’s investment could be higher.
“At the time if you had asked me where we would have gotten US$20 million as a nation to invest in the establishment of LIAT 2020, I don’t believe I would have had a precise answer, I probably would have said to you at the time God will provide.
“But today, we are in a position in which the government of Antigua and Barbuda has already placed US$12.1 million in escrow for the purchase of three ATRs and we will also make available another US$10 million to repair the three aircraft to ensure that they are air worthy.
“So in essence, we are committed to spending in excess of US$20 million to make LIAT 2020 a resounding success,” Browne told the ceremony. Two more aircraft will arrive over the coming months, to include a 120-seater jet and the new airline has already completed demo flights under the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority, while awaiting its AOC by this week.
Browne said his administration is prepared to negotiate directly with the former employees of the regional airline, LIAT (1974) Limited that went bankrupt earlier this year.
The Antigua and Barbuda Workers Union (ABWU) has been calling on the government, which had been a major shareholder in the airline, to negotiate an amicable settlement, but the government has accused the union of not wanting to negotiate in good faith. Browne said that the door remains open for direct negotiations with the workers regarding the severance payments.
The government had originally offered a 50 per cent compassion payment in cash and bonds to the former employees that Browne said amounts to EC$110 million (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents). The ABWU had said in the past that it would continue to seek the 100 per cent severance payment to the former airline employees.
“We know the issue of severance remains an issue and whereas my administration has no legal obligation to pay severance, I say to the displaced workers of LIAT and even those who are still employed with LIAT that my administration is committed to covering the 32 per cent,…representing the shareholding my government had in LIAT at the time.”
Apart from Antigua and Barbuda, the other shareholders were Barbados, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines. Most of these islands have reached agreement with their former LIAT workers on severance payments.
Browne, who attended the XXIII ALBA-TCP Summit in Venezuela, said that “whereas the union has been an impediment, my administration is now prepared to negotiate directly with the LIAT staff and to put a mechanism in place to make sure that 32 per cent is paid to you.
“However, it will require the maturity of the staff to look beyond the partisan politics of the union and to negotiate directly with our government so that we can make those funds available to you in whatever combination, cash, bonds and land.
“So I reiterate that the offer still stands and I encourage existing staff and former staff of LIAT to take up the offer,” Browne said.
Responding later last week to Prime Minister Brown’s comments, the ABWU accused Prime Minister Browne of continuing “to bully” the former employees of the regional airline, LIAT (1974) Limited that went bankrupt earlier this year.
In a statement, the ABWU said it has taken note of Prime Minister Browne’s most recent statements regarding the LIAT 1974 severance matter and that he “continues his attempts to undermine the union’s role and disregard the workers’ rights to representation and collective bargaining.
“This protracted severance battle waged against the workers by the Prime Minister has exposed the fundamental issue at play: that the Prime Minister does not accept that severance is a fundamental right for all workers and that workers and their representatives must have a say in determining a reasonable settlement.”
Further, the union said that the matter “is not a political issue as the Prime Minister has tried to portray it to the workers and the public. Our mandate as a union is to protect and defend the rights of our members irrespective of which political party forms the Government. There is no doubt that the Prime Minister understands this very well, but in the absence of any reasonable argument as to why the workers’ severance is not a priority for his government, he has no choice but to deflect and attempt to reduce this matter to a political squabble.”
“We remind the Prime Minister that ILO convention No 98 of 1949 asserts and protects the workers’ Right to Organise and to Collective Bargaining,” the ABWU said, adding that Prime Minister Browne “continues to bully the workers of LIAT into accepting a significantly reduced offer of 32 per cent of severance down from 50 per cent.
“Where is the reasonableness in this offer? Since neither the government nor the Court Appointed Administrator was willing to entertain any discussions with the union, it is no surprise that they have arrived at such a ridiculous and insulting proposal.
“It further baffles the mind to think that the Prime Minister believes that he could somehow dupe the workers into accepting this offer by “negotiating directly” with them.
What the Prime Minister fails to recognise is that these very workers with whom he wishes to “negotiate directly” are themselves the union.
“The Antigua and Barbuda Workers’ Union is not an entity that is separate and apart from the workers. Our voice is in fact the voice of the workers; the position we articulate is the position of the workers: that they have a right to 100 per cent severance or a reduced settlement that is mutually agreed upon. CMC