After years of failing to find a way to reconcile whether LIAT, the Antigua-based carrier, primarily serves the interests of shareholder governments by providing tax revenue and employment or is a genuine for-profit operation rather than a form of monopoly, a moment of truth has arrived.
Late last month, courtesy of the pandemic it was announced that with the approval of the airline’s principal government shareholders, Barbados, Dominica, Antigua, and St Vincent, it had gone into liquidation.
Antigua’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, subsequently said that he hoped that LIAT 1974 Ltd might be recapitalised as LIAT 2020 with private sector support. However, Mia Mottley, Barbados’ Prime Minister, as outgoing Chair of CARICOM, said that she believed that “lean entities that are private sector-driven” should be taking the lead in providing alternative services.