Shareholder Governments Want LIAT Chairman to Stay

Shareholder Governments Want LIAT Chairman to Stay
(Source: Antigua Observer)

There’s concern that Dr Jean Holder’s departure from LIAT could have a negative impact on the Antigua-based airline as it prepares to make some major decisions.

Chairman of LIAT’s shareholder governments, St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves, reiterated yesterday that he and his Antigua & Barbuda counterpart Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer want Dr Holder to stay on the Board, and the airline simply cannot afford for him to go.

The LIAT chairman submitted his resignation about two weeks ago, but said he would remain until his replacement was chosen.

“I don’t see how we can get someone at this critical stage to perform the role that Dr Jean Holder has been performing so excellently,” Dr Gonsalves said on Observer AM yesterday. “We have a number of issues to sort out. He’s very much in the front with the strategic thinking for LIAT’s fleet renewal and LIAT’s flight expansion … then there are some residual matters on the industrial relations front.”

LIAT has been trying to decide which aircraft manufacturer it will choose to expand and renew its aging fleet and has had demonstrations from Canadian company Bombardier and Embraer of Brazil. The airline is also in the midst of a Voluntary Separation (VSEP) and Early Retirement Program as well as negotiations with unions on the closure of the airline’s ticketing offices across the region.

Dr Gonsalves said while he was not sure how the airline’s largest shareholder, the Barbados government, feels about Dr Holder’s decision to leave LIAT at this time, he was willing to bet that Prime Minister Freundel Stuart was just as disappointed as the other two shareholder governments.

“In this business, he (Dr Holder) is a pearl and I don’t want us to lose him,” he said.

The Vincentian leader added that Dr Holder had the support of people “across the board” and, as evidence of this, referred to an email sent to him on Monday by Chairman of the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) Captain Michael Blackburn who has had many differences with LIAT in the past.

In that correspondence, the head of the pilots union supported Dr Gonsalves’ call earlier this week for Holder to hold his resignation. He also expressed the view that Dr Holder should stay on, at least until all the major issues at LIAT are resolved.

Dr. Gonsalves said Captain Blackburn wrote that, “Dr Holder commands awesome respect. His reputation is impeccable and he will be a big loss at this stage for us.”

“I cannot speak for the rank and file at this time. If you need, I can call an emergency meeting of the LIALPA executive to see if we can make a joint statement of some kind,” he continued, reading from the email.

Dr Gonsalves said that was very strong endorsement from a trade unionist and pilot who had been at the forefront of criticizing LIAT’s board and management on several issues.

“Here he is offering total support and confirming his confidence and the respect which he personally has for Dr Holder,” he noted.

Captain Blackburn told The Daily OBSERVER last night that he was awaiting a response from Gonsalves to the email before calling a meeting of the LIALPA executive on the matter.

Dr Holder was appointed to the Board of LIAT in 2004, after 14 years in the diplomatic service and a further 30 years as the head of the Caribbean Tourism Research and Development Centre and the Caribbean Tourism Organization.