Striking pilots in June month 'cost LIAT $7 million'

Antigua-based Observer media quoted Julie Reifer-Jones as saying that the three-day strike resulted in thousands of bookings being cancelled over a very short period.

“The challenge with cancellation is that when they are in that kind of volume it’s dramatic and many of the cancellations were in our summer period which is our peak period,” she is reported to have said.

Between 7 June and 9 June, LIAT’s pilots were on strike protesting the status of negotiations on the implementation of a new, increased pay scale for pilots who now fly LIAT’s ATR-72 aircraft.

Late on June 9, the Leeward Islands Airline Pilots Association (LIAPA) made a deal with LIAT bringing an end to three days of industrial action.

Reifer-Jones said that the greatest impact of the strike was the confidence that had been lost in LIAT and the brand.

The President of the LIAPLA, Captain Carl Burke, has already apologised to those travelling in the Caribbean

“Well first of all, with the most recent situation which took place last week, I want to apologise to any persons that were inconvenienced and I want to give them all reassurance that the pilots normally, usually exhaust all means of negotiations with LIAT,” Burke told the WINN FM radio station.