LIAT WILL LOOK at cutting some of its most unprofitable routes over the next three months as part of a programme to fix the cash-strapped airline.
Following a meeting at the Hilton Barbados yesterday between the four shareholder countries, chairman of LIAT’s board Dr Jean Holder said the time frame for a recovery plan of structural change would be 100 days, since the survival of the carrier was at stake.
“We’ll have to take a very hard look at our current schedules and the profitability of our current routes. We have brought in some experts to assist us in looking more deeply into the route analysis issues, but it is clear that LIAT cannot continue to provide essential social services to 21 countries in the Caribbean on a daily basis, offering close to 1 000 flights weekly, and only four countries put any funds into this operation,” said Holder.
This will involve reshaping the routing system in a way that would ensure there is no longer an abundance of social routes at the expense of commercial operations, he added.
