By Latrishka Thomas
After just over a month of advertising, LIAT 2020 has attracted hundreds of job applications.
The company has received a favourable response from the public, with more than 800 applications flooding in, including many from former LIAT employees.
“We have had over 800 applicants and inside of that a tremendous amount of [former] LIAT workers,” Interim Chairman of LIAT 2020 Ambassador Daven Joseph said.
“Those that we need immediately have been offered re-employment already,” he added.
He said that the company’s majority shareholder, Nigerian carrier Air Peace, “has agreed with us and they are collaborating with us to ensure that the institutional knowledge is still maintained in LIAT 2020 and we want to give priority to LIAT workers, and that is what is being done”.
An advertisement posted in early February outlined that the Antigua-based airline – set to rise from the ashes of collapsed regional carrier LIAT 1974 – was looking for experienced people to fill several positions crucial to the airline’s operations.
The vacancies included CEO, captains, first officers, cabin crew, maintenance and engineering, information technology, and ground operations.
LIAT 2020 is set to launch in a few weeks. This week, the airline will conduct two demo flights in an effort to acquire the requisite Air Operations Certificates (AOC) — a standard practice in the aviation industry.
One of the demonstration flights will be to St Kitts on Thursday, while the other will head to St Lucia on Friday.