Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves says there will be consequences in terms of job losses, if regional airline LIAT closes operations.
Gonsalves said: “If you sell the three aircraft which are owned by the CDB, immediately that’s 33 pilots who would have to go. Then other workers will have to go, flight attendants etcetera, etcetera, because over 7 million US is required in some immediate savings, 2.53 million US required from the workers but you ain’t getting the number near to that.
“We wanted a 10% cut across the board, but we not getting that and the pilots have agreed to a 6% cut on the basic pay, that ain’t going to do anything much, and the question of the agreement…the legacy agreement, they don’t want to have new contracts.
“…So, what you probably will have to do is to start a new airline and you hire people on a specific contract but I can’t guarantee that there would not be disruptions.
Dr. Gonsalves disclosed that the Leasers of seven of the LIAT planes in far away some places like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are prepared to give cuts of between 17 and 20 percent and other stakeholders are prepared to do cuts in order to save the regional carrier.
“…I don’t think the employees fully grasp what is at hand”, he said.
Two years ago, Gonsalves said that CARICOM member states collaborated with the CDB to have a consultation on LIAT.
He said the problems facing the airline were diagnosed and three options were put forward as measures to be taken to resolve the issue.
According to Gonsalves, the first option was a proposed restructuring of the airline where “countries served by LIAT have to come into the mix and the workers themselves have to take a salary cut and the other stakeholders have to chip in.”
The second option, he indicated was to give the airline to the private sector completely, while the third option was to close it down and start afresh.
“If you even close it down and I fear that that is an option which is becoming more and more realistic, but if you close it, you have to manage in the transitional period and we need to have resources…”, he said. (THE NEW TODAY)
