Caribbean Development Bank negotiations and aircraft certification delay plans
By Robert A Emmanuel
As LIAT 1974 sunsets in the region, marking the end of an era for the entity, the date for the new LIAT 2020 to hit the skies remains a mystery as certain conditions first need to be met.
Ambassador Daven Joseph, the Development Commissioner heading negotiations for LIAT 2020, and Air Peace Caribbean Ltd in Antigua CEO Hafsah Abdul-Salam sat down with Observer to speak about the challenges in getting planes off the tarmac, including obtaining an air operator’s certificate (AOC) from the sub-region’s civil aviation authority, ECCAA.
“To get the AOC certificates, we need an aircraft to carry out what we will call the demonstration phase of the application process,” Abdul-Salam said in an interview with Observer media’s Elesha George.
Currently, the new entity expects to have two types of aircraft in its initial fleet—the well-known ATRs—and ERJs. However, Abdul-Salam said that ECCAA currently does not have the capacity to check the air worthiness of the latter planes, making obtaining the certificate a greater challenge.
“The ERJs are ready to come on board… ECCAA, unfortunately, does not currently have capability to oversight the airworthiness of that aircraft, therefore we need to secure the AOC with the ATRs,” she added.
But, she noted, ECCAA’s inability to oversee the airworthiness of the ERJ planes has less to do with the plane’s ability to transport people than the capacity of ECCAA staff who, she said, have never flown this plane before.
“So ECCAA has capability to oversee the airworthiness of a Highlander, for instance, or an ATR, or for Dash-8, but I think because there isn’t any operator who has operated or who has flown the ERJ-145, they haven’t had the need to develop that capability,” she explained.
Under a standard certification of airworthiness, an inspection of the aircraft, its equipment, cockpit layout and records may be required to identify any deficiencies.
Ambassador Joseph noted that it is not a necessity at this point for the ERJ fleet to be part of the initial first flights of LIAT 2020 as the ATRs are more important.
Two of the three aircraft owned by LIAT 1974 are still being repaired with a timeline of October for their likely return but, in the meantime, the LIAT 2020 team is hoping to have three planes wet-leased from Air Peace.
But obtaining the sole functioning plane under LIAT 1974 will not be simple as the government will need to negotiate with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the other shareholding governments over the plane.
According to Ambassador Joseph, getting the buy-in of the shareholding governments has been smooth thus far, however it is the discussions with CDB that have been the priority.
Antigua and Barbuda, having owned 30 percent shares in LIAT 1974, still has a loan to repay at the Barbados-based bank, but is hoping to strike a deal where it can own the ATRs and contribute that as part of its capital into LIAT 2020.
“You have to understand that CDB’s interest is to ensure that the loan for these aircraft is being taken care of…but CDB has no risk because [the loans] are sovereign guaranteed loans.
“So whichever way LIAT goes CDB will get their money, so they have no reason to hold up the wishes of the shareholding governments,” Joseph articulated.
However, the ambassador also suggested that discussions involving the financial institution’s president Dr Hyginus Leon and other members of staff could potentially slow down the LIAT plans.
“Our director on the CDB board, Mr Whitfield Harris, I speak with him three to four times a day to ensure that he communicates with his colleagues the importance and critical nature of this business that we are doing, so I’m hoping that, before the end of this week, we will have some action from the CDB,” he noted.
Air Peace is the second Nigerian-based entity with which the government has been seeking to do business in relation to air connectivity between Africa and the Caribbean.
Ambassador Joseph noted how the public may perceive the relationship with Air Peace considering the debacle with Antigua Airways which brought hundreds of Cameroonian refugees escaping conflict to Antigua.
“Those are some of the considerations that we had to bring on the table. Should we shelve everything because of that unfortunate situation, or should we pursue our goal of strengthening our capacity for connectivity in the region?
“I feel that the unfortunate circumstances that we had in the past should never stop our people from moving forward with whatever they want to do to better themselves and better their lives,” Ambassador Joseph said.
