‘Crop’, cricket lift Liat

CROP OVER and Caribbean Premier League (CPL) cricket are proving to be a lucrative combination for regional carrier LIAT.
Marketing associate David Greenidge told the WEEKEND NATION on Wednesday that all the flights are almost full this week through to Grand Kadooment.
LIAT has joined the list of platinum sponsors for Crop Over.
The issues with flights, which caused problems with the transportation of teams last year, appear to be behind the airline and Greenidge said he was not aware of any issues this time around.
“Last year what caused the problem is that we were approached kind of late, and we tried to assist the CPL with the movement of the people. But we were on board earlier this year so we had a lot of planning involved. So far we haven’t had any hiccups or hitches,” Greenidge noted.
He said the approximately 40 daily flights are coming in at almost full capacity.
“We’re quite busy. . . . Some source markets  like Trinidad, and St Lucia and St Vincent the flights are quite busy and they’re actually booked up, especially the Crop Over final weekend. We’re into CPL now, so most of the flights are full for CPL,” he said.
No specials are on, Greenidge said, but there is a competition called The Ultimate Carnival Experience, where anyone flying to any of the 21 destinations could win a trip for themselves and three friends.
“What we do is we fly them into Barbados for Crop Over and on Kadooment Day we fly them to Antigua to pick up the last lap of the Antigua Carnival and then we would fly them down to Grenada for Spice Mas. . . . It’s been popular last year and we’re seeing good numbers for entries this year,” he said.
Greenidge was speaking at the ongoing celebrations to mark the 20th anniversary for Value Vacations, which is located in Hastings Plaza, Christ Church.
It was LIAT’s turn to set up a display at Value Vacations in Hastings this week. All the airlines were given an opportunity to set up a one-week display at its offices. (YB)