REGIONAL CARRIER LIAT is paying twice as much as it should in maintenance costs due to the age of its fleet, says chief executive officer Ian Brunton.
Brunton, a pilot and former head of Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Airlines, said the average age of the airline’s planes was 19 years with the youngest aircraft being approximately 15 years old and the oldest about 23 years old.
“Our maintenance cost percentage is anything between 14 to 18 per cent of total operating costs and when you think of a EC$300 million (BDS$222 million) cost base . . . you’re looking at between EC$40 million ($29.6 million) and EC$60 million ($44 million) per year in maintenance costs.
“That is high; it should be half that and that is where our biggest challenge is,” Brunton said during a news conference in Antigua recently.
Brunton noted that the planes required twice the level of maintenance of newer aircraft in order to be as safe and reliable.
However, the CEO conceded that the airline may not have been managing the planes well enough as they aged.
“I think we’ve been in danger in recent times of trying to satisfy the demand, trying to be all things to all men, trying to be very charitable and flying to all kinds of routes with low load factors.
“We’ve been overflying the airplanes and they’ve been breaking down more and more,” he said.
LIAT currently operates around 100 flights daily to 21 destinations and Brunton noted that costly schedule disruptions occur when planes are grounded for essential maintenance.
He announced a new business plan which includes a reduction in daily flights and a complete fleet change. (NB)
