LIAT may be revived soon but if the continually failing airline does not survive Antigua and Barbuda wants to be first to be repaid.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne announced he expects Antigua and Barbuda to be the first to be reimbursed if LIAT returns but collapses again. It was announced in St. John’s last week that it’s almost certain now that the Antigua-based regional carrier will return to the skies, perhaps as early as next month.
“What the Cabinet has decided, while the administrator is negotiating, we have decided that we will provide the funding so that the administrator could continue to do LIAT’s work, but we think it would be important for us to support the administrator putting LIAT back into the air,” Browne said.
“I know that there’s a plan that is being developed presently — it may take another 30 to 45 days to be completed — so as soon as we get that plan from the administrator, the government of Antigua and Barbuda has committed to provide funding.
“In fact the funding that we are providing, we’re doing so as a preferred creditor, not as a shareholder. So, if things do not work out then the government of Antigua and Barbuda will be the first to be repaid. I want to make that abundantly clear.”
Browne’s administration borrowed US$15 million to invest in LIAT and he said they have commenced utilising some of those funds.
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