By Makeda Mikael
The former Chairman of LIAT and current Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the
Grenadines, Hon. Ralph Gonzalves’ ‘MIA’ culpa, on flinging the last stone that hit
LIAT, causing the valiant Caribbean Airline to lose altitude, is the topic of aviation
talk in the region. It has even blanked out Dominica’s outreach to join LIAT 2020,
putting their dollars where their talk centered, and now we are all awaiting papers
to commit to the resuscitation of LIAT, the Little Airline that Could!
As someone who falls in love with airports and runways, staying in love with
LIAT has always been easy. From the days of the first advertisement ditty, “LIAT,
LIAT, I LOVE,” to today as we hear the sound and look up to see what is left of
LIAT, still flying high, safe and sound, with loving pilots, and smiling efficient
crew, and the best engineers and mechanics, and, even when they bring you home
late, they bring you home!
Sixty years is long enough to develop a culture in the airline business, and its track
record builds confidence in the marketplace, a confidence based on safety, doing
the best they can, sometimes in the worst of times, like over the last few years. The
culture of LIAT is based on care, and even as the majority of LIAT workers have
always been female, it could be that the nurturing science of women may have
helped mold the kinder side of the LIAT, which we all knew. However, it was
never acceptable for LIAT, “Leaving Island Any Time,” so whenever it dropped to
that level, loud, unloving, and unkind words were exchanged, until LIAT again
saved the day, and the LIAT love flowed again.
We managed a pandemic without LIAT, and that was the time, when down, that
LIAT received the violence of the plantation, the destruction of our only means of
integration, LIAT grounded! LIAT was stomped on, and LIAT’s elegant and self-
assured pilots, crew, engineers, mechanics, operations, and airport staff, were
reduced to begging for their well-earned severance or some ‘kinda’ money, just to
live. The contempt and abuse metered out against these hardworking, loyal, and
constant workers of LIAT certainly was not love from the politicians who ran the
airline to the ground and then abused it.
The MIA Culpa of the Hon. Prime Minister is accepted. However, as he has been
the Chairman of LIAT for more years than he can remember, he will need to undo
what he did, renew Hon. MIA Motley’s faith in LIAT, and bring Barbados back
into the family, LIAT 2020!
