A REGIONAL BUSINESSMAN has described LIAT as in a state of “financial meltdown” and has called on chairman of the shareholder group, St Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, to step down.
Gregor Nassief, owner and director of Secret Bay Resort and executive chairman of Fort Young Hotel in Dominica, said LIAT continued to be a drain the treasuries of shareholder countries like Barbados, operated inefficiently and stifled competition from other carriers.
In a letter dated February 25, which he copied to Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, Antigua and Barbuda’s leader Baldwin Spencer and Roosevelt Skerrit, prime minister of Dominica, Nassief said the source of LIAT’s problems was its “financial unsustainability”.
Charging that no one was being held accountable for what was happening with the regional air carrier, the hotelier said that with Gonsalves as chairman the buck had to stop at him.
