Leeward Islands Air Transport

LIAT ; Leeward Islands Air Transport
IATA code :	LI
ICAO code :	LIA
Call sign :	LIAT
Founding:	1956
Seat:	Saint John's , Antigua and Barbuda
Operational bases:	Bridgetown; Piarco;
Home airport :	Saint John's
IATA prefix code :	140
Management:	David Evans ( CEO )
Fleet size:	10
Aims:	regional
Website:	www.liatairline.com

LIAT - Leeward Islands Air Transport Service is a regional airline in Antigua and Barbuda , based in Saint John's and based at VC Bird International Airport .

history

De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter of LIAT

Leeward Islands Air Transport Service was founded on September 20, 1956 and began operations with a Piper Apache between Antigua and Montserrat. After acquiring 75% of the larger and better-known BWIA in 1957, the route network could be expanded to other Caribbean destinations and new machines such as Beechcraft Bonanza and De Havilland DH.114 Heron were procured. In 1965 the Herons were replaced by the Hawker Siddeley HS 748 .

LIAT wasn't always a fan gun airline. After the takeover by Court Line in November 1971, LIAT used a leased BAC 1-11 for longer flights in the Caribbean in addition to Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander . From 1973 LIAT also operated aircraft maintenance for other Caribbean airlines, such as Carib Aviation . The service ended in 1974 after Carib Airlines hired its own mechanics.

After Court Line went bankrupt in August 1974, the BAC 1-11 was returned to the leasing company. In order to maintain flight operations between the islands, the governments of 11 Caribbean countries stepped in and acquired the airline. The scheduled flights continued with smaller aircraft such as Twin Otter .

The company grew steadily in the 1980s. From 1986 daily connections to Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as to other regions that had never been served, were added. In addition, faster De Havilland DHC-8-100 were bought.

In January 2007, LIAT announced its intention to merge with Caribbean Star Airline . The flight networks were merged and the flights were marketed exclusively by LIAT. Otherwise, both companies continued to fly under their flight licenses until the full merger, but under the colors of LIAT. The aircraft types were standardized on the DHC-8.

In June 2007, Caribbean Star Airline was completely taken over after the governments of Barbados, Antigua and St. Vincent approved the purchase.

In November 2014 it was announced that the aircraft fleet would be reduced in 2015 and the staff would be cut by up to 140 people.

The discontinuation of the airline and the establishment of a new airline was announced at the end of June 2020. The consent of the owners is considered certain. The background to this is the financial situation, which has worsened due to the COVID-19 pandemic .

Destinations

LIAT operates a highly frequented route network between the Caribbean islands. The main base is VC Bird International Airport , Antigua and Barbuda, with hubs at the airport Grantley Adams to Barbados and Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and Tobago .

fleet

De Havilland DHC-8-300 of LIAT

As of March 2020, the LIAT fleet consists of 10 aircraft with an average age of 6.0 years:

Aircraft type	active	ordered
ATR 42-600	5
ATR 72-600	5
total	10	-

Former aircraft types

De Havilland DHC-8-100
De Havilland DHC-8-300

Ownership

The main shareholders are 11 Caribbean countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica , Grenada , Guyana , Jamaica , St. Kitts and Nevis , Montserrat , St. Lucia , St. Vincent and the Grenadines , Trinidad and Tobago).

Trivia

For the acronym LIAT , funny and cynical meanings have emerged in the Caribbean region, which address delays, canceled flights and lost luggage:

Luggage Add Any Town (luggage in any city)
Leave Iceland Any Time (rely at some point the island)

In fact, delays and canceled flights are not uncommon. Even pieces of luggage sometimes do not arrive at the destination airport on the same flight, but this is often due to the fact that when the flights are fully booked, the small passenger planes no longer have any free luggage space, so that pieces of luggage are delivered on later flights.

Web links

Commons : LIAT - collection of images, videos and audio files

LIAT website (English)

Individual evidence

↑ Liat reduced fleet , accessed November 15, 2014.
↑ Time coming to replace LIAT with new carrier - Antiguan PM. ch-aviation, June 29, 2020.
^ LIAT Fleet Details and History. In: planespotters.net. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .
^ Antigua Forum: LIAT Connection Question. (No longer available online.) In: Tripadvisor . Archived from the original on August 2, 2011 ; accessed on August 2, 2011 .
↑ Sickout at Liat Leaves Hundreds Stranded. (No longer available online.) In: Dominica Central Newspaper. June 16, 2010, archived from the original on August 2, 2011 ; accessed on August 2, 2011 .

[1] Liat reduced fleet , accessed November 15, 2014.

[2] Time coming to replace LIAT with new carrier - Antiguan PM. ch-aviation, June 29, 2020.

[3] LIAT Fleet Details and History. In: planespotters.net. Retrieved March 13, 2020 .

[4] Antigua Forum: LIAT Connection Question. (No longer available online.) In: Tripadvisor . Archived from the original on August 2, 2011 ; accessed on August 2, 2011 .

[5] Sickout at Liat Leaves Hundreds Stranded. (No longer available online.) In: Dominica Central Newspaper. June 16, 2010, archived from the original on August 2, 2011 ; accessed on August 2, 2011 .