Caribbean airline LIAT to end operations on January 24
Cleveland Seaforth, receiver of the financially burdened Leeward Islands Air Transportation (LIAT), announced Friday that the company will cease operations on January 24.
“After careful review and evaluation of current operations, the receiver has made the decision to permanently terminate all commercial flight operations as of the close of operations on January 24, 2024,” Cleveland Seaforth said in a missive.
LIAT is an airline based at V. C. Bird International Airport in St. John, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda. C. Bird International Airport in St. John, capital of Antigua and Barbuda, and operates services to Anguilla, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Guyana, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. John Puerto Rico, St. Kitts, St. Lucia and St. Maarten.
“As a result of the foregoing, you are hereby notified that your employment with LIAT will be terminated effective February 4, 2024,” he informed the airline’s staff.
The move will mean that more than 90 employees will be out of work and without pay.
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In its letter, Seaforth advised staff that the company was not in a position to pay severance payments at this time, but would not shirk its obligations.
“The Company acknowledges its obligation with respect to any of the applicable [aforementioned] rights, which will be provided to you separately within 45 days of this letter, once the respective calculations have been completed.
“The administrator will make every effort to ensure the best outcome with respect to the debt of all employees in accordance with the company’s legal and contractual requirements,” Seaforth sentenced, thanking the workers for their “valuable contribution” to LIAT (1974) Limited, which resumed flight operations on November 1, 2020.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne stated last month that his government had taken responsibility for restructuring and resurrecting LIAT, “with a vision to return the airline to regional skies.”
Browne said the airline, which has been under his stewardship since July 24, 2020, “has long been an essential thread in the fabric of Caribbean connectivity.”
He also assured that he would lay the groundwork to finalize an agreement with Air Peace, a private Nigerian airline founded in 2013, “so that LIAT 2020 can begin operations, thus ensuring a promising future for regional travel.”
Browne said that “just as the nation has overcome adversity in the past, so too would LIAT 2020 emerge stronger, more efficient, sustainable and better positioned to serve the needs of the people and Caribbean neighbors.”
With information from EFE
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