St. Vincent and the Grenadines’ Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves made the announcement Wednesday following marathon talks involving LIAT’s management and its three major shareholders - the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

LIAT and Caribbean Star have been holding informal discussions about the merger, and Prime Minister Gonsalves said that those talks would continue leading up to the Barbados meeting.

“The three main shareholder governments say to the management of LIAT to continue their informal exploratory discussions with Caribbean Star regarding the possible nexus, a possible merger,” Gonsalves said at a press conference which followed the six-hour talks.

“As you are aware, LIAT is a company and there are structures and systems of governance within the company which must be observed and decisions properly made.”

Gonsalves said that any formal decisions on the likely way forward would be taken at the meeting of the board members in Barbados.

He said today’s talks did not constitute a properly convened shareholders meeting, noting there were other shareholders, even though the three governments represented at the talks constitute about 80 per cent of the shareholding in LIAT.

“I want you to know that the governments represented here have long established a public policy regarding regional air transportation,”

Gonsalves said.

“We want to see a quality intra-regional air transportation system at the best possible price for the consumers and an air transportation system in which the governments have a sufficiency of influence and or control so that the interest of the people of the region can be adequately advanced.”

The LIAT management also presented the three shareholder governments with a report concerning the airline’s performance so far this year. It states that LIAT will need some additional financing in the immediate period.

“The suggestion coming from the management is in the region of EC$24 million US$8.8 million),” Gonsalves said.

Antigua’s Prime Minister, Baldwin Spencer who also addressed the news conference announced that discussions were at an advanced stage between his government and the Venezuela for a US$20 million loan to ease LIAT’s cash flow situation.