FRESH FROM his electoral victory in Grenada’s February 19 parliamentary election, in which his People’s National Party captured all 15 seats, Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell chose to go public last week with a rather surprising negative message about the sole intra-regional airline, LIAT.
Without any known outstanding dispute between his less than two-month-old administration and the management and/or main shareholder governments of LIAT,
Mitchell told a Press conference last Wednesday during a private visit to Barbados that there would be “no funding” by Grenada for the regional airline “unless it becomes efficient . . . .”
What makes this negative stance, this apparent political gaffe, by the Grenada prime minister seem all the more surprising is that it followed, as we have been reliably informed, his agreement to a request from LIAT’s chairman Jean Holder for a meeting. It was to update him on the latest initiatives being pursued to enable the airline to further improve its services, which include five daily flights to the Spice Isle.
It is an open secret that poor relations had prevailed between leading officials of the trade union representing LIAT employees and Mitchell when he served as a three-term prime minister.
But so many changing circumstances and developments have occurred since, the most relevant and significant being new management policies and constructive engagements with shareholders, that should have made Mitchell’s public sour note unnecessary.
Incidentally, it is our understanding that Holder’s meeting occurred with Mitchell on Friday as part of the LIAT’s chairman ongoing efforts to keep the main shareholder governments abreast of relevant developments on policy initiatives and services provided.
That meeting was preceded by one in Kingstown on the same day between Holder and St Vincent’s Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, who has lead responsibility for LIAT and civil aviation among CARICOM Heads of Government.
It took place in the context of new approaches to sensitize as many Heads of Government and/or relevant cabinet ministers as possible about LIAT’s plans to better serve the region.
Whatever, therefore, may have contributed to Mitchell’s sudden public outburst against LIAT, to the extent of an intention to deny any financial involvement in support of the service being provided by the intra-regional carrier, should now be reassessed with a view to spawning and sustaining a healthy relationship.
At this time when Caribbean Airlines Limited is faced with an outstanding US$500 million debt problem that could create new difficulties in its partnership arrangement with Jamaica, there is need for goodwill to flow from the governments of all CARICOM states that continue to depend on the vital intra-regional services being provided by LIAT.
