LIAT 2020 flies to SVG from October

Vincentians, at home and abroad, as well as potential visitors have been questioning when and if the revamped regional air carrier, LIAT 2020, would be adding St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) to their flight schedule since its return to the skies.

That query was answered this week at a press conference when Minister of Tourism, Carlos James made the announcement of SVG’s addition to Liat’s schedule. He said the airline will be providing five flights weekly, with the first flight set for October 4, 2024.

Shareholder governments took a decision in 2022 to liquidate LIAT 1974 Ltd, after the air carrier fell on hard financial times precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, the airline responded by scaling back its operations, and then officially ceased operations in January, 2024.

LIAT 2020 released its new initial flight schedule in September with limited routes to Barbados, Grenada, Dominica, and St. Kitts & Nevis and, at the time, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said he had anticipated that SVG would be included in the route schedule.

Minister James welcoming the service of LIAT, revealed at the September 25, 2024 press conference that St Vincent and the Grenadines was selected to serve on the Constitutional Reform Committee of the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO), the region’s tourism development agency.

He said the Ministry of Tourism has recognized the challenges facing the country due to limited options for inter-regional travel, particularly in the Southern Caribbean region and he believes SVG’s appointment to the Committee ‘comes at the right time’ as they seek to ramp up regional marketing.

“… we have had some challenges here locally here and in the Southern Caribbean, connecting visitors to small island states, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Saint Lucia Dominica- because we’ve had some challenges with LIAT … so we we’re hoping that our entry at the CTO level on this Board, and the role that we intend to play regionally within tourism, we will see a lot more activity in terms of our marketing, and a lot more traffic coming to St Vincent and the Grenadines from the region.