Gonsalves asks Holder not to quit at this time

“PLEASE hold that resignation.”
That basically is the message from Vincentian Prime Minister and Chairman of the Board of Shareholders of LIAT, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, to Dr Jean Holder who has tendered his resignation as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the 55-year-old regional airline, amid the unfolding problems involving the REDjet airline.
Both Gonsalves and Holder are now awaiting the return home — possibly this weekend — of Barbados’ Prime Minister Fruendel Stuart from an official visit to the People’s Republic of China. Holder was originally nominated as Chairman of the LIAT Board of Directors by Barbados.
The Barbados government is one of the current three shareholders of LIAT which has, against the odds, survived previous low-fares airlines. The two other shareholders are the governments of Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
With some 51 years of public service, including 15 years as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), and the past seven years as LIAT’s Chairman — the longest to serve in the post — Dr Holder’s resignation came amid the still unresolved controversy surrounding the quest by the low-fare airline, REDjet to secure licences  to operate commercial flights out of Barbados to Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica.
LIAT has earned the reputation as the most ‘endurable’ regional airline that operates the highest number of flights, some 158 daily, with 18 aircraft to 22 regional destinations that extend to the four major language areas of the Caribbean, including The Dominican Republic,  St. Maarten and Puerto Rico, in addition to regularly servicing the countries of the Caribbean Community.
As Gonsalves sees it, “LIAT is largely the bread-and-butter” for operational costs of some regional airports, and certainly for Grantley Adams International. And for Holder, who prefers to  “say very little at this stage,” he said that despite having to battle the heavy cost of ever-rising aviation fuel (currently US$140 per barrel), LIAT has to honour required taxes that amount to approximately forty (40) per cent of the cost of a purchased travel ticket.
The ‘Sunday Chronicle’ has established that neither Dr Holder nor Prime Minister Gonsalves — who has lead responsibility among CARICOM Heads of Government for regional transportation (both air and sea) — was at any time consulted on the ensuing controversies focused on REDjet’s bid to operate flights into Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica from Barbados, as it has already been approved for to Guyana.
Asked yesterday why he has requested Dr Holder to hold his resignation and whether he had received any advisory from the CARICOM Secretariat in relation to the multilateral problems involving REDjet’s owners and the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, Prime Minister Gonsalves said:
“The short answer is no. However, I am sure that since the Secretariat is aware of my regional portfolio with responsibilities for regional air transportation, I would have been so advised…”
He said he was “not seeking to be involved without being officially requested. But given the serious development that has developed, according to regular media reports in relation to REDjet, with implications also for LIAT, of which Barbados, Antigua and St Vincent are shareholders, I would have expected some notification as the Head of Government with lead responsibility for Regional Transportation…”
It was also learnt yesterday that Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda has agreed with Prime Minister Gonsalves’ request to Dr Holder to treat his resignation as “a matter on hold,” pending a planned conversation by his Vincentian counterpart with Prime Minister Stuart.
Further, Prime Minister Spencer has also advised Prime Minister Gonsalves against giving up his regional portfolio for air and sea transportation in the face of lack of appropriate consultation on a matter that also extends to the business interest of LIAT “as a vital regional airline…”
At a ministerial meeting in Port-of-Spain last Friday over the delays in required approval of REDjet’s applications to Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago to operate commercial flights, the factor of ‘safety’ of the airline’s aircraft had emerged as a crucial issue for resolution prior to the required official ‘go ahead’ signal to start flying.