LIAT Adjusts to Fallout from Fire

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Business News

Tuesday, 11 December 2012 03:12

By caribarena news

Antigua St. john's - Engineers at LIAT have over the past several months encountered notable levels of difficulty in meeting the necessary maintenance requirements to keep the company’s aging fleet in the skies.

This is according to the airline’s Director of Engineering Alan Alexander, who stated that the current challenges in the maintenance arena are a direct result of the June 10, 2012 fire. That blaze levelled two maintenance hangars here in Antigua, and in the process also destroyed one of the company’s aircraft that was at the time parked for repairs. Two office buildings were also lost in the blaze, resulting in losses worth tens of millions to the severely cash-strapped airline.

The maintenance manager explained that due to the extent of the situation, LIAT has since been forced to outsource various aspects of its scheduled and impromptu maintenance services for the fleet of Dash-8 aircraft.

This outsourcing, Alexander said, is more reflected in the area of “heavy maintenance” works. Nonetheless, the LIAT executive maintains that not only has the airline continued flying, but any negative effect on the routes has been negligible. He did not comment on the financial cost of the outsourcing. “We have kept flying and we have not stopped one day since that fire occurred,” Alexander said.

LIAT’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Julie Reifer-Jones explained that the airline has had to make several adjustments following the June 10 catastrophe. Opting not to go into much detail, the CFO pointed out that included in these adjustments were internal changes in manpower assignments and schedule reduction. “We did the internal adjustments that were required so that we could continue to operate,” the CFO said.

LIAT’s Chairman Jean Holder weighed in by pointing out that the airline is not exempt from “the extremely high cost of fuel, maintenance and manpower” required to keep the planes in the Caribbean skies; nor has it been spared the pain and suffering experienced by any other business due to the current economic conditions.

Holder said because of these and other considerations, renewing LIAT’s fleet is not an option, but a necessity”, since the renewal would also result in significant savings to the company’s existing maintenance budget.

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