CDB hopes ‘flying high’ on LIAT’s future

(Barbados Today) As LIAT embarks on a new flight plan towards viability, a key funder has expressed he is anxious to start seeing a turnaround in fortunes after pumping some $600 million dollars into the cash-strapped regional airline.

President of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Dr Warren Smith drew on recent CDB-backed studies that said while intra-regional travel remained an important part of the successful development of the region, “heavy taxation” was dragging down the sector.

One of the findings in a CDB study showed that the island-hopping carrier used to transport in the region of 1.2 million people per year, but was only now carrying approximately 730,000 passengers.

Dr Smith told Barbados TODAY: “It is affecting the level of business that is done between the island.

“So that there is an urgent need to address that issue.

“There is an urgent need to improve the financial performance of LIAT because it’s sustainability depends on addressing that issue.”

The latest CDB study, which was completed in mid-2018 and presented to LIAT’s shareholder governments, outlined the airline’s challenges and opportunities and put forward a series of recommendations.

Read more at: Barbados Today

Source: CARICOM TODAY