The Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Al Chastanet, says his government has set in motion plans to open the Caribbean island's skies up to more operators given growing dissatisfaction with LIAT (Antigua and Barbuda) (Antigua).
Earlier this month, Chastanet said St. Lucia would not be contributing any more funds to LIAT until the carrier’s service to St. Lucia Vigie improves. Further to that, the prime minister this week added that talks had now been opened with Seaborne Airlines (BB, San Juan Luis Muñoz Marin) to develop flights to Puerto Rico while he was also considering making Caribbean Airlines (BW, Port of Spain) the country's designated national carrier.
“This means that Caribbean Airlines would now be able to fly between Saint Lucia and Barbados and Trinidad and even go to Puerto Rico and other places,” he was quoted by The St. Lucia Times. “Moving our aviation to Trinidad will, I believe, encourage other people to be able to open up an airline in Saint Lucia or in some of the other Islands.”
At present, LIAT is St. Lucia's most prominent operator controlling 76.22% of all weekly seats out of the island according to ch-aviation's capacity database. From St Lucia, it currently offers regular flights to Antigua, Tortola, Bridgetown, Fort de France, Port of Spain, St. Maarten, and St. Vincent Argyle International.
The St Lucian premier's comments come after the Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, this month expressed similar dissatisfaction with LIAT's poor performance threatening to withhold funds from the airline until its service quality improves. As recently reported, Gonsalves has also demanded answers as to why a board-approved plan to relocate LIAT's main hub from Antigua to Bridgetown has not yet been implemented by the executives, over a year after the decision was taken.
