Antigua & Barbuda's government has officially submitted a proposal to the authorities in Barbados expressing an interest in acquiring its shares in LIAT (Antigua and Barbuda) (Antigua), the cash-strapped Caribbean regional carrier whose future is being discussed by its five main shareholder governments.

Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne said that the document was submitted on May 7 and that he was expecting a favourable response, the Caribbean News Service has reported.

“We are looking towards the sustainability and viability of LIAT. We now have to await a response from Barbados and then we will develop an action plan on the way forward,” he said.

LIAT is saddled with at least USD60 million worth of debt, owed primarily to the Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). It currently operates five ATR72-600s (all leased) and five ATR42-600s (two on operating leases from Nordic Aviation Capital) to make 491 weekly flights across 15 destinations, according to the ch-aviation capacity module.

Its five shareholders, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, St Vincent & the Grenadines and, most recently, Grenada, have agreed to consider a proposal by Browne that would find a way to finance the retention of three ATR42-600s that are officially owned by the CDB, according to a Caribbean Media Corporation report.

Earlier this week, Lionel Hurst, chief of staff in the Antiguan government, backed a LIAT bail-out proposal he said had emanated from Virgin Atlantic founder Richard Branson, which highlights an expansion of LIAT rather than downsizing.

This goes against a competing vision for LIAT's future by the Barbados government that would sell two of the ATR42-600s and use the cash to start up another airline based primarily in the southern Caribbean.

Ralph Gonsalves, Vincentian Prime Minister and chairman of the LIAT Shareholders Government Group, has said that there is support among shareholders for both ways forward and that all proposals including Browne's would be discussed by the shareholders before the end of May.