LIAT eyes US$54 million fleet upgrade

Sun, 11 Oct 2009

The Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines, whose governments are shareholders in the regional carrier, met in Bridgetown on Saturday.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC - Shareholder governments of LIAT are seeking to update the fleet of the regional airline to the tune of US$54 million, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves has announced.

Gonsalves told journalists that the idea was discussed at a meeting with the Prime Ministers of Antigua and Barbuda and Barbados - the other shareholder governments, here on Saturday morning.

“The main issue we discussed strategically this morning was the question of new aircraft. We need some new aircraft,” he said.

“We anticipate that we probably need US$54 million to do some fleet renewal and we discussed some ways and means of how we can possibly go,” the Prime Minister added.

At the moment, the Antigua-based carrier has a fleet of 18 Dash-8 aircraft, with 15 that have a seating capacity of 50 and three 37-seater planes.

Gonsalves said the goal is to replace the 37-seater planes with newer aircraft.

While he refused to divulge specifically how the funds for the fleet upgrade would be sourced, the St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister said LIAT’s shareholders would explore all available options open to them.