|
LIAT (1974) LTD, operating as Leeward Islands Air Transport or LIAT, is an airline headquartered on the grounds of V. C. Bird International Airport in Antigua. It operates high-frequency inter-island scheduled services serving 17 destinations in the Caribbean. The airline's main base is VC Bird International Airport, Antigua and Barbuda, with bases at Grantley Adams International Airport, Barbados and Piarco International Airport, Trinidad and Tobago. ==History== Leeward Islands Air Transport Services was founded by Kittician the late (now Sir) Frank Delisle in Montserrat on 20 October 1956 and began flying with a single Piper Apache operating between Antigua and Montserrat. With the acquisition in 1957 of 75 percent of the airline by the larger, better known BWIA, LIAT was able to expand to other Caribbean destinations and to obtain new aircraft types, such as the Beechcraft Bonanza and de Havilland Heron. Hawker Siddeley HS 748s came in 1965, due to the airline's decision to phase out the Herons. LIAT was not always an all propeller aircraft airline. After Court Line〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=1974 - 1210 - Flight Archive )〕 obtained 75 percent of the airline in 1971, LIAT entered the jet age, using British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven twin jets for their longer Caribbean routes. Smaller Britten-Norman Islander STOL (short take off and landing) twin prop aircraft were used during this time as well. LIAT operated the stretched version of the British-manufactured BAC One-Eleven, being the series 500 model, which was comparable to McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 being flown during the late 1960s and early 1970s by a competing airline, Puerto Rico-based Caribair (Puerto Rico). The BAC One-Eleven jets were supplied to LIAT by Court Line. Court Line went bankrupt in August 1974,〔 and the BAC One-Elevens were removed from the LIAT fleet. In order to keep the airline flying, the governments of 11 Caribbean nations stepped in and acquired the airline. The jets were replaced with a series of smaller types, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter STOL (short take off and landing) turboprop. The 1980s were a decade of growth for the airline. By 1986, many daily flights were operated to Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as other regions that the airline had never flown to. Faster de Havilland Canada DHC-8-100 Dash 8 turboprops were acquired in order to reduce flight times systemwide. In November 1995, LIAT was partially privatized, to save it from bankruptcy once again. LIAT also began operating the larger 50-seater de Havilland Canada DHC-8–300 Dash 8 turboprop. In June 2013, LIAT received its first ATR 72 600 registration V2-LIA. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「LIAT」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|