LIAT solution needed urgently

BY now the operations of LIAT, the Caribbean island-hopping airline, should be back to normal following industrial action by LIAT’s pilots over two days last week. Naturally, everyone will be pleased that full operations have returned to LIAT. However, one cannot help but wonder why is it that LIAT’s management (including the Board of Directors) and the body representing the airline’s pilots cannot seem to settle their differences, rather than the latter having to resort to industrial action whenever some new issue/issues surface.

It clearly is not a good sign for an airline which Caribbean people look to for transportation within the region.

Reports indicated that the pilots blamed “misguided and ill informed decisions” taken by LIAT’s management for their actions. It disrupted flights with limited services only been possible from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.

Since this is not the first time that such action has taken place, the situation reached the point where St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, said he was absolutely fed up at the constant industrial action plaguing the regional carrier. Dr. Gonsalves, who is the Chairman of the shareholder governments, called for these self inflicted wounds between management and the pilots to stop.

But the Vincentian Prime Minister is in good company since there are several other people out there, including the large number of passengers, who use LIAT on a daily basis, who would feel fed up as well because of the constant disruption to service as this latest dispute has done.

It has become a worry not only to the public who uses LIAT, but to those who want the best for LIAT and to see that the air carrier which services about 21 destinations across the Caribbean, remains a viable entity.

The airline’s pilots seemingly have their issues and from this vantage point it appears those issues will continue to influence the behaviour of the pilots unless they are resolved. As Dr. Gonsalves pointed out, shareholder governments are spending enormous sums of money to outfit the airline with new planes and to make sure that its service to Caribbean destinations continues to improve.

But this can only take place in a peaceful environment and where the company is allowed to settle down and to concentrate on its core business of service delivery. The time that the parties of LIAT have to spend thrashing out problems distracts from the airline is about and to say the least, impacts negatively on productivity. Furthermore, with more losses in man hours, this has severe implications for the financial position of LIAT and could affect its revenue stream, the constant flow of which is necessary to meet repayments of the loans secured to acquire the planes. All of this means that the LIAT shareholder governments and other stakeholders have to be on top of their game to nip issues in the bud and to ensure that disruptions are kept to a minimum if better cannot be done.

There is no denying the fact that LIAT is important to this region. As an entity owned by four governments – Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica – LIAT flies to destinations where a private sector led carrier would be reluctant to do. Let us hope that last week’s industrial action by the pilots won’t happen again.