It is no wonder LIAT can’t make a profit!

Editor: Do you look at the breakdown of the “fare” when you book a LIAT ticket? I suggest next time you have a close look at where your money goes.

I recently booked a ticket SVD to GND. The total cost was $167.66. Leaving aside the details this showed that LIAT received just $60.00 and the taxes and fees amounted to $107.66. To put it another way, you will pay your fare to the airline, LIAT, and almost 180 per cent in taxes and fees! One of the fees is a “POS concourse fee” despite the fact you will probably not even leave the aircraft in POS. Also when you booked the ticket you really wanted to go direct to GND not via POS. The airline routes you that way and POS collects a fee for little or nothing.

It looks to me that LIAT has to restrict its fares so that we can afford to travel. Is this because the Governments in the region have found a way of raising significant revenue at the expense of the traveling public? The only way to move around the Islands is by air. When you do the Governments are going to take their “pound of flesh”. What can be done? I suspect absolutely NOTHING. Just shrug your shoulders. BUT remember when the hand wringing starts again about LIAT losing money. Ask how much profit went to the tax collector!

I am not necessarily a supporter of LIAT. In fact they can often be shown to be inefficient, lackadaisical, unresponsive etc etc. Then out of the blue in Barbados I received efficient, helpful and caring assistance from a LIAT passenger service agent.

The point of this rant is to highlight the role of the Governments and Airport Authorities have in extracting your hard earned money. Look carefully the next time you book a LIAT ticket.
Mike Arthur