By Vernon Khelawan (TRINIDAD GUARDIAN)
Regional carrier Liat will regain the upper hand in regional air transportation from tomorrow.
Caribbean Star, Liat’s major competitor in Caribbean skies over the last seven years, operates its farewell flight today as its completes the shutdown of its operations.
Caribbean Star stopped competing with Liat some eight months ago, but the airline continued to fly under a commercial agreement with Liat using its own aircraft and crews to operate flights according to Liat’s schedule.
The arrangement was made to accommodate the long drawn out negotiations between the two airlines as they tried to reach agreement on the transfer of the leases for seven Caribbean Star Dash-8-300 aircraft to the Liat fleet.
What began as a merger of the two carriers in October 2006, will finally end today as an asset purchase agreement with Liat acquiring the assets of Caribbean Star, exclusive of the seven aircraft. Liat is also taking over rented premises in Antigua, which housed Caribbean Star’s head office and reservations and operations offices.
Three weeks ago Caribbean Star officials announced that it would operate its last flight on November 15 and sever all remaining employees, including cockpit and cabin crews. However, Liat has been forced to recall some of Caribbean Star’s flight attendants and cockpit crews on short-term contracts because Liat did not have enough of its own personnel to staff its flight schedule.
According to sources in Antigua and Port-of-Spain, many of Caribbean Star’s flight attendants did not exercise their options to take up positions with Liat and moved on to other flying jobs or switched careers.
Many of the laid off pilots have foregone their severance packages to take up lucrative positions in the Middle East, India, China, Africa and Canada.
Liat’s winter schedule is expected to go into effect tomorrow, but already its flights are running with high load factors and regular travellers on certain routes are becoming worried about what to expect during the upcoming peak holiday season.
A shortage of seats at such a critical time would be a source of worry for Liat reminiscent of the problems it encountered during the annual Carnival celebrations in St Vincent several weeks ago.
While the Liat’s board and executive management are optimistic of the airline’s chances of survival in these challenging times, several Caricom governments are not taking any chances. For example, St Lucia has contracted Puerto Rico-based American Eagle to operate scheduled services between Castries and Bridgetown to ensure that visitor arrivals are maintained. Dominica and St Kitts/Nevis have also made arrangements with American Eagle to increase its services to their destinations.
In addition, Caribbean Airlines is said to be preparing to begin intra-island services in the southern Caribbean, having recently acquired the assets of Tobago Express, including its five 50-seat Dash-8 aircraft.