Federal Minister of Aviation, the Honorable Mark Brantley told freedom Fm Newsdesk that while LIAT would be discontinuing flights to Nevis, there was a preexisting arrangement with Caribbean Helicopters which LIAT had co-opted.
Brantley told freedom Fm that now that LIAT had terminated flights from Nevis, Nevisians and other passengers would still be able to fly to Nevis from the Antigua hub using Caribbean Helicopters, “which would see no disruption whatsoever”.
Brantley stated that he was not looking at other options at this point to get another airline to fly to Nevis to take up some of the slack left by LIAT.
When asked whether other Caribbean governments should respond to Vincentian Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves call for Caribbean governments to invest in LIAT to make it more sustainable for the Caribbean people in facilitating reasonable and economical fares, the deputy Premier and Minister of Tourism in the Nevis Island Administration remarked that LIAT is not a model airline operating profitably, but that LIAT was an engine that held the Caribbean together and it was in that context he viewed the comments of the Vincentian Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves.
Brantley asked whether one can imagine a Caribbean without LIAT and reminded that Pm Gonsalves was a proponent of Caribbean civilization and was looking at the bigger picture of connectivity between the islands.