LIAT to lay off staff again By Sharon Lym (Trinidad Guardian) Regional airline Liat soon will lay off staff in its second round of job cuts within a year.David Stuart, director of Marketing at Liat, said the airline was in the process of streamlining its operations and further layoffs were in the pipeline. "Our staff numbers have gone down by about 25 per cent, but we need to go down another 15 per cent," he disclosed at a news conference at Crowne Plaza hotel in Port-of-Spain. Early last month, Garry Cullen, Liat's chief executive officer, reported the airline had cut its work force to 720, down from 1016 employees, in 1999. Cullen had stated the number had to be reduced further to about 650. At that time, the company was in negotiations with its trade unions. However, there was no mention yesterday whether Liat's Trinidad workers will be affected. Stuart said in Barbados, 32 of its employees were offered severance packages, and already have been employed by the handling company that serviced Liat in that island. In Antigua, where Liat is headquartered and its employment is the highest, workers already have opted for the voluntary packages. At present, Liat is in negotiations for a joint venture with another company that will provide ground services to the airline and other carriers. It is hoped this company will employ some former Liat employees. Last year, Liat issued a EC$30 million bond in Barbados to raise money to offer severance packages for those employees who took voluntary retirement and to purchase two second-hand Dash 8 300 aircraft. These two planes will join Liat's fleet in May and will coincide with the launch of the company's new colours. In its efforts to be competitive, Liat also announced a new four-level fare structure.Stuart also planned to meet with the local Travel Agent Association to discuss a possible reduction in commission, yesterday afternoon. The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site: Roj (Roger James) *************************************************** ICQ Pager: mailto:15836110@pager.icq.com escape email mailto:ejames@escape.ca yahoo email: mailto:triniroj@yahoo.com Trinbago site: http://www.tntisland.com CBSC Group on Yahoo: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/caribsocabrass CBSC Website http://www.tntisland.com/caribbeansocabrassconnection/ ******************************************************* Steel Expressions Orch http://www.escape.ca/~ejames/se/ email #1: mailto:steelexpressions@yahoo.com email #2: mailto:steelexpressions@home.com ******************************************************* The Trinbago Site of the Week: (Flowerline) http://www.flowerlinetnt.com (Flowerline Florist) courtesy of Roj Trinbago Website & TnT Web Directory Roj's Trinbago Website: http://www.tntisland.com TnT Web Directory: http://195.224.187.36/ *********************************************************