ST JOHN'S, Antigua, August 24, 2009 - Four months after being fired from LIAT, former boss Mark Darby has pointed to the lack of focus of the shareholder governments and the Board of Management as major stumbling blocks to the regional airline moving to higher heights.
He also criticized other regional governments for asking much from LIAT, but giving little.
In an article published last week on the website of Flight Global, a provider of aerospace news and information, the former Chief Executive Officer spoke about the complexity of three governments - Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines - owning the airline.
"At times having three owners meant conflicting agendas. It also meant key decisions required a consensus," he said, adding that "there was a lack of clear shareholder direction".
The other Caribbean governments did not escape comment. Darby said they regularly made unrealistic demands for increased services and lower fares.
"Perversely, while they were happy to expect LIAT to reduce its fares, they didn't hesitate to raise air travel tax to the point where it often makes up 30 - 40 per cent of the total ticket price. One of our successes was to sensitize passengers to this burden," he wrote.
Darby said that in the absence of clear shareholder objectives, LIAT was left to develop an informal strategy to fit its mission and network.
But he said the lack of shareholder clarity was compounded by weak corporate governance. He noted that while a Board should provide strategic leadership and manage corporate values, obligations and resources against a backdrop of controls aimed at assessing and managing risk, the role of LIAT's Board was never that clear.
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