New CEO says it’s an honour to lead LIAT

Within hours of the confirmation of her appointment as the first female to become the Chief Executive Officer of LIAT (1974), Julie Reifer-Jones said it is an “honour” while she is very “conscious of the challenges that are involved”.
Reifer-Jones said that having acted in the post following the resignation of former CEO David Evans last year, she already has an idea of what lies before her and the vision and mission to be accomplished.
“I am certainly going to put my best foot forward to resolve some of the issues that we have faced in the company,” she said.
Since sitting down with OBSERVER media for an extensive interview on June 22, Reifer-Jones said that many of the initiatives discussed to improve the service have been advanced.
“I have worked very hard with the team and certainly I am looking forward to continuing that work to ensure that we sustain those improvements. Our on-time performance has improved quite a bit, the delays are significantly less and we are really working very hard to try to make sure we deliver a better customer service product,” she said yesterday.
She added that the airline has stepped up in its efforts to build relationships with its own staff.
“We made some changes in terms of plans for the maintenance team to make sure we have less technical effects on the aircraft, so just generally we are tightening up on the management. Of course, some of these things take time,” she said.
She said the management is still engaging staff through townhall meetings and meetings with departments since the management teams believe this is the only approach that will provide an opportunity to resolve industrial matters in a manner that is not disruptive to the airline’s flight schedule.
For years LIAT has been plagued by industrial action from pilots and mechanics/engineers over pay and other issues. This action has often caused cancellations and delays and has had a grave financial impact on LIAT, the airline has said in the past.
Another strategic plan is to build relationships with other airlines.
“Our strategic plan outlines the need to have stronger alliances and relationships with other carriers and we are working actively to build that. Now that the fleet change has been completed, we will be moving more aggressively to advance some of these plans in the strategic plan … the developments coming up will be more in line with strengthening our relationships with other carriers and expanding LIAT’s reach within the Caribbean network.”
(More in today’s Daily Observer)