LIAT Takes Off as Low-Cost Airline

Caribbean airline LIAT received its first plane on Thursday since it announced plans to become a discount carrier following years of financial troubles, officials said. The Dash 8-3000 plane, leased from the California-based Aero Century Corp., is one of two 50-seaters that LIAT will lease from the company.

LIAT CEO Garry Cullen declined to discuss financial terms of the deal. The Antigua-based airline expects to have 14 planes in its fleet this year, up from 11 in 2005. The expansion was part of LIAT´s plan to become a discount carrier in the region, the company said in a statement.

The carrier re-launched itself as a budget airline last October in a bid to keep flying amid soaring operational costs and increased competition. In 2002, it laid off 241 employees, or one-third of its work force. The airline has received several bailout packages over the last three years.

LIAT is owned by the governments of Barbados, St. Vincent, Trinidad and Antigua. It received $16.2 million from those governments last October to help lease new aircraft and to change its operational structure.

The air company was seeking an additional $10 million from the shareholder governments to complete part of a restructuring program it started in 2000.