LIAT could cut routes

St. Kitts  – CEO of LIAT (1974) Ltd., Ian Brunton, has told Caribbean tourism stakeholders that the regional airline will soon be dropping at least eight routes which have been consistently unprofitable,
unless the carrier can secure from affected governments some kind of market support or revenue guarantee.

During the highly anticipated panel discussion last week at the Caribbean Tourism Organisation State of the Industry Conference held at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort, Brunton insisted that the carrier could no longer be expected to be self-sufficient while still being called upon to service the very thin routes of
the region.

Leading the discussion on the Challenge of Regional Transportation: from left to right – Session Moderator: Bevan Springer, President of Marketplace Excellence, Ian Bertrand, Founding Principal, El Perial Management Services and 

former CEO of BWIA, Ian Brunton, CEO of LIAT and former CEO of competitor Caribbean Airlines, Windfield Griffith of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation.

Against the backdrop that 35 per cent of the route structure of LIAT is unprofitable, Brunton remarked that the airline could no longer sustain flights to certain destinations whose names he refused to disclose during the discourse.

“We are going to leave only those routes that are economic to us,” said Brunton, explaining that LIAT would then “go to the countries that are affected and say ‘if you want routes that are uneconomic, you have to give us some kind of market support, some kind of revenue guarantee’”.

Brunton reasoned that it was the only solution at this time and that countries could not expect LIAT not to be a “drain on treasuries”, while at the same time telling the carrier that it had to remain on routes that “burnt holes in the skies and put a lot of money out of pocket”.

The CEO disclosed that the revenue for the airline was 44 per cent less than benchmark routes. He cited heavy taxation, high fuel costs, high labour costs and an ageing fleet as factors heavily draining the company.

He said that governments needed to consider whether decreasing taxation to increase flight volumes would help to reverse the decline in the industry seen over the past several years.

He added that the company was very serious about interlining and would actively seek ways to forge linkages with third-tier regional airlines (19-seaters) to better service the thinner routes. (RA)