ST. LUCIA'S OPPOSITION COMES TO THE DEFENSE OF LIAT

CASTRIES, Jan 4 CMC - The opposition St. Lucia Labour Party (SLP) has come to the defence of the regional airline LIAT days after the government here gave the regional carrier the thumbs down.

Earlier this week the St. Lucia government, through Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Allen Chastanet, made it clear that LIAT has lost its confidence and as a result the current administration will continue to diversify away from the regional carrier.

But former Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Phillip J Pierre says that most of the airlines, if not all, that come to St. Lucia have to be paid some kind of subsidy by the government.

Pierre said while he understands that LIAT has to make changes and he is on record as articulating that position, it must nevertheless be noted that the airline industry on the whole is facing problems.

"We were promised that if we put an American Eagle flight from Barbados to St. Lucia, the cost of the flight would be cheaper, but that today is more expensive," he notes of the service which was introduced last September.

He said that LIAT must get its act together but the airline has a history of serving the region and the region must therefore be patient with it.

"I understand the frustration that the travelling public has with LIAT, but they must also remember that the carrier has served the region well and to make it appear as it the airline has been totally useless and we must almost get rid of it, I think that's unfair to the region and to the staff of LIAT."

"There must be changes but the government of St. Lucia should not write off LIAT as a failure and look to other airlines who most of the times are profit minded, profit oriented and who when the circumstances get unfavourable, leave St. Lucia if the government fails to make payments to them," Pierre added.

The former Tourism Minister said that in time LIAT will get its act together, although he admits that the recent strike by the airline caused an already concerned public to suffer delays.

"Like Senator Chastanet, I got caught in the LIAT protest also and it took me a whole day to get back to St. Lucia from Grenada myself, but the fact is all airlines have problems.

"LIAT is a Caribbean thing with a safety record that is unmatched, so there are pluses for LIAT, there are hard decisions that have to be taken, and I am sure they will be taken, but I will not support the complete writing off of the carrier despite its mistakes and its problems," Pierre noted.

The St. Lucia government has indicated that its biggest tourism challenge for 2008 will be addressing the situation facing LIAT.

Chastanet says that the country is not getting good service from the regional carrier which recently experienced a strike by employees that left hundreds of people stranded at airports across the region.

"It comes back to what we have said, you simply cannot take over an airline and not structurally change it because if you keep it the same way, which is what has happened, then you are not going to see any different results," Chastanet noted.

He said it's really amazing that shareholder governments have not realised that they have to take a tough stance with the staff.

"While I understand everybody has to get paid salaries, at the end of the day, we have to put a structure in place that we can afford but when you continuously say that there are no cost problems associated with LIAT, I am sorry, but I beg to differ," he said.