LIAT Says New Restructuring Program Is Working

Four months after three Caribbean governments agreed to help the Antigua-based Leeward Islands Air Transport (LIAT) restructure itself, the debt-ridden airline has said its financial restructuring program is progressing satisfactorily.

LIAT´s Chief Executive Officer, Garry Cullen, said that under the agreement reached with the governments of Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, the airline had been promised US$16.2 million for a transformation plan.

Cullen said that the funds had been provided under the Petroleum Stabilization Fund and had been approved by Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments and the Cabinet of Prime Minister Patrick Manning in Trinidad.

The airline is now at the last stage of a long and difficult restructuring exercise which started in 2001.