On June 14th, Liat transferred the last of its Dash 8 aircraft to its new owner and Mr. David Evans, LIAT Chief Executive Officer, gave an emotional farewell to the last of a family that has served the airline well.
Mr. David Evans said:
“Today is truly a historic occasion for LIAT as we say goodbye to the last Dash8 in our fleet. The Dash8 fleet has been with us for some 30 years and has served the company well. It is therefore only fitting that we should mark this significant milestone
Our transition which began in 2013 has been a difficult period for the company but we are very pleased with the progress that we have made with our fleet change moving from a Dash 8 fleet to an all ATR fleet. Our tenth aircraft is due to arrive later this year and this will complete the transition bringing the fleet to 10 aircraft. Our new fleet now averages two years old.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the entire LIAT team; first of all our Maintenance & Engineering Team, our Legal Counsel, the Finance Team and of course our Flight Crew for delivering the aircraft to their new destinations”.
With the acquisition of the all ATR fleet, LIAT will be able to deliver a good product and better service to our customers throughout the region.
Mr. David Evans added:
“To our customers, I say, we have heard your many complaints and we intend to do better.
As we move forward with our new fleet, we are committed to improving the reliability of our scheduled services and already we are seeing an improvement in our on-time performance. We know that more needs to be done in the area of customer service and LIAT’s Management Team is committed to making significant improvements in the months ahead.
As we say farewell to the Dash 8’s we also look forward to improved overall performance for LIAT.”