brent.pinheiro@guardian.co.tt
On December 19, 2024, a LIAT20 ERJ145 from Antigua touched down at the Piarco International Airport in Trinidad and Tobago. It marked the start of a five-times weekly commercial service between the two nations adding 1,750 weekly seats to the market.
One day later, on December 20, the airline added Kingston, Jamaica to its route network bringing the number of destinations the airline serves up to 12.
It’s a remarkable achievement for the start-up airline that only began flying on August 6, 2024, with two Embraer ERJ 145s and a mission to connect the region.
Under new management, and with a familiar name, LIAT20 is ready to connect the northern and southern Caribbean and make the days of multi-day travel in the region a thing of the past.
When the now-defunct LIAT (1974) closed its doors permanently, there was a rush by Caribbean carriers to fill the void.
Sint Maarten-based airline Winair added Barbados, St Lucia, and St Vincent to its network.
Haitian airline Sunrise Airways also began flying to Antigua, Dominica, St Kitts and St Lucia.
Local carrier Caribbean Airlines (CAL) even acquired more ATR 72-600s to service the routes LIAT (1974) once operated. Last year, CAL added new services to Martinique, Guadeloupe, Tortola and Puerto Rico. CAL also expanded its services to Grenada, Dominica, St Lucia and Barbados.
But despite being a new entrant, LIAT20 CEO, Hafsah Abdulsalam, is certain there is room for all carriers in the region.
Addressing reporters at Piarco International three weeks ago, Abdulsalam said, “We’ve got hundreds of thousands of people seeking to travel every day and they just don’t have enough lift capacity. So LIAT coming in provides that additional lift, additional options, and (makes it) much more affordable for people. So there is space, the pie is big and there’s meat for everyone.”
The pie is certainly big. In its overview and outlook for 2025, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade association that represents approximately 340 of the world’s airlines, predicts passenger numbers will reach 5.2 billion worldwide in 2025, a 6.7 per cent rise compared to 2024.
IATA’s chief economist Marie Owens Thomsen is also optimistic about growth in the Caribbean. In an interview with Guardian Media in Geneva at IATA’s global media day,, she said, “As long as global economic growth holds up and growth in the regions that tend to be the feeder regions travelling to and from the Caribbean - (if) growth in those areas holds up there, there is every reason to be positive.”
Abdulsalam is similarly positive, but her vision is not limited to the Caribbean region only. Besides transporting passengers intra-regionally, it also plans to introduce flights to/from the US, setting it up to compete with the likes of Caribbean Airlines and American Airlines.
Passengers, it is hoped, will also come from an unlikely source, Africa. Connecting Africa and the Caribbean is a dream that has long been talked about by several Caribbean Government heads.
There was an attempt in 2022 by the Gaston Browne government to link Antigua & Barbuda to Nigeria with a venture called Antigua Airways. However, after successfully operating an inaugural flight, the service was shut down several months later – reportedly for failing to meet regulatory requirements.
Still, for Abdulsalam, the Caribbean-Africa dream remains alive for 2025 even though LIAT20 will not operate the transatlantic leg. She said, “LIAT2020 is a joint venture partnership between Air Peace Caribbean Ltd and the Government of Antigua & Barbuda. So Air Peace Caribbean Ltd is a related party to Air Peace Nigeria, part of its shareholdings... So it will be Air Peace Nigeria seeking to fly into the Caribbean and LIAT2020 will then be distributing across the Caribbean.”
Connecting the Caribbean is notoriously tough due in large part to the difficulties in achieving economies of scale. It’s not a problem unique to our region, but according to IATA director general, Willie Walsh, part of the solution lies in the equipment type used –namely using turboprop aircraft instead of jet aircraft. But even he admits that customers prefer to fly on jet aircraft.
Abdulsalam says this is something they have also taken into consideration when planning the LIAT20 fleet.
“We’ve got a mix of turboprops and jets, so the intention is to utilise the jets for the longer routes because of its comfort, it’s faster, you know and all that. And then the turboprops for the shorter routes, or to the airports where the jets cannot land,” she said, adding that the airline was considering smaller capacity turboprops to potentially serve smaller islands.
LIAT20 is also bringing a bigger jet, an Embraer E195-E2, into play which it plans to deploy on the still-to-be-launched routes like Panama, Dominican Republic, Miami, and Puerto Rico. The US routescome with a caveat, they hinge on the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority regaining its FAA category 1 rating.
With the addition of Guyana as the airline’s third hub, joining the St Vincent and Antigua hubs, the LIAT20 team has certainly been busy. But can LIAT20 achieve more than its predecessor ever did? Will the public embrace the new LIAT with the old LIAT and its “Leave Island Any Time” moniker such a fixture in the Caribbean’s lexicon?
Abdulsalam certainly believes so and she’s encouraging everyone to give LIAT20 a chance. She’s also taking the “Leave Island Any Time” joke and flipping it into a brand promise, committing to all that fly with LIAT20 that the airline will be available to fly when they want to and at the scheduled time.
To borrow a line from Taylor Swift: the old LIAT can’t come to the phone now. Why? Because it’s dead.
