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| Skerritt Calls LIAT Pilot Sickout ‘Disastrous’ |
| By Sheena Brooks |
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LIAT airplane |
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St. Kitts Minister of Tourism Hon. Senator Richard Skerritt has called the LIAT pilot sickout “disastrous” to the region.
Skerritt spoke exclusively with The Observer on the second day of pilot industrial action and informed that the mass cancellation of flights was already negatively impacting St. Kitts and the wider Caribbean.
“This situation is untenable and a very upsetting development for the region. LIAT is the biggest transporter of regional travelers into St. Kitts. We started to feel the effects since yesterday when we had a small conference here for the East Caribbean Central Bank. Friday is the test match and we have our annual Music Festival days after that, and this sickout may cause uncertainty in the minds of travelers who could change their minds about coming here,” he said.
A pilot sickout was initiated on Wednesday, June 16, and has led to hundreds of the regional carrier’s flights to be cancelled, leaving thousands of passengers stranded for two days, at press time.
On Wednesday morning all pilots scheduled to fly called in sick, bringing the preponderance of intra-regional air travel to a virtual standstill. Some 137 flights were grounded and about 3000 passengers marooned on Wednesday. Sources told The Observer that one crew turned out to work in Antigua but due to the tremendous backlog of irate passengers, a decision was taken not to allow the single flight. Airlines officials did not confirm this information.
The sickout came one day after LIAT management announced that a salary dispute between the airline and the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIALPA) had been resolved. The pilots threatened a show of resentment if the company did not retract the statements, as no resolution had been arrived at in the meeting.
This latest industrial action by the pilots could cost the airline hundreds of thousands of dollars. A one-day pilot sickout in May 2009 cost LIAT upwards of EC $350,000.
On Thursday morning LIAT issued a travel advisory saying that all flights that day would likely be cancelled due to industrial action of the pilots.
“The action by the pilots has resulted in the cancellation of all LIAT flights this morning. While the company is doing everything to minimize the effect on passengers, they are being advised that for the rest of the day they should expect further cancellations…LIAT regrets and would like to apologize for the inconvenience to its customers/passengers as a result of the disruptions and will issue further advisories as necessary.”
Skerritt said he had hoped the matter would have been resolved by Wednesday morning, but had been informed of another day of cancelled flights.
“One day is bad; two days is horrible; any longer would be disastrous. This will have long-reaching effects as it will erode traveler confidence. You have thousands of annoyed persons and it disrupts travelers’ planning processes. So this is hurting the entire region and it’s a really sad reminder that the situation that exists right now with LIAT is unsustainable. This is going to generate some serious action at the highest levels,” he told this media house.
Skerritt said certain essential services like regional air travel would have to be scrutinized to see how future industrial action could be avoided.
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