Grenada has joined the list of shareholders in cash-strapped regional airline LIAT (Antigua and Barbuda) (Antigua), according to a report by the Caribbean Media Corporation. The move was accepted at a shareholders' meeting in Antigua on April 30.
Stakes are already held by Barbados, Antigua & Barbuda, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, and Dominica with other nation-states such as Trinidad & Tobago owning minority shareholdings.
Oliver Joseph, Grenada's trade and industry minister and Caribbean Community affairs minister, explained that the number of passengers LIAT carries to Grenada justified the decision.
“LIAT brings in thousands of visitors to Grenada every year, and therefore from an economic and social point of view Grenada had to support LIAT because not supporting LIAT will mean a loss of revenue and economic development to our country,” he said.
Grenada is LIAT's fifth most important airport by weekly capacity, according to the ch-aviation capacity module, with 2,240 seats or 7.85% of the airline's total. It is sixth by weekly frequency, with 35 of the carrier's total of 491 flights, or 7.13%.
LIAT's Bridgetown-Grenada route is its second-busiest, with 10.93% (1,624 seats) of the total 14,860 capacity, and second also by frequencies with 21 per week (8.4% of the 250 total).
Grenada-Port of Spain is in joint-fifth place among LIAT's most important routes, with 952 seats on 14 weekly frequencies.
Joseph stressed that Grenada would continue supporting the case for LIAT's restructuring, adding that a number of models had been examined but none finalised. He said that the island's investment in the airline to date was XCD1.3 million East Caribbean dollars (USD481,000).
In March, the five biggest benefactors of LIAT's services, including Grenada, tentatively agreed to contribute a combined total of USD5.4 million. But only Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis have responded favourably, Ralph Gonsalves, the Vincentian Prime Minister and chairman of the LIAT Shareholders Government Group told the newspaper Searchlight on May 3.
