Civilian Aviation

I was fortunate to have a job that sent me to the Caribbean on a regular basis for a number of years. It's not a region swarming with aeroplanes, and it's also a region with a stark contrast between the haves and the have nots. Consequently it may not be the best place to wander around with an expensive camera and lenses, and these shots are all from various airports, airside.

LIAT (Leeward Islands Air Transport, also known as Luggage In Another Town!) used to own the Caribbean, with services all over the area. Their fleet of Dash 8s was being replaced with ATRs when I stopped going down that way.

V2-LGN De Havilland DHC-8-311 Antigua V C Bird 20th November 2010 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

LIAT were challenged by Caribbean Star, run by the now disgraced financier Alan Stanford, and Caribbean Sun. There was talk of Caribbean Star taking over LIAT, but then it went the other way, with LIAT absorbing Caribbean Star in 2007.

V2-LET DHC 8-311 Antigua V C Bird 4th August 2006 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

N803WP DHC-8 102 Antigua V C Bird 4th August 2006 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

The other local airline was BWIA, which became Caribbean Airlines

9Y-BGI Boeing 737-8Q8 Barbados Grantley Adams 5th April 2005 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

9Y-WIN DHC 8-311 Barbados Grantley Adams 29th September 2008 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

Virgin 747 in Grenada

G-VROM 'Barbarella' Boeing 747-443 Grenada Maurice Bishop 14th February 2005 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

BMI used to send their A330s down there

G-WWBB Airbus A330-243 Barbados Grantley Adams 29th March 2009 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

N3768 Boeing 737-832 Antigua V C Bird 20th November 2010 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

Interesting stuff in the background!

N665JB Airbus A320-232 Barbados Grantley Adams 4th October 2010 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

N587CA Convair 640 Antigua V C Bird 19th October 2010 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

Unusual to see Cuban stuff outside Cuba

CU-T1548 ATR 72-212 Antigua V C Bird 28th October 2009 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

More interesting backgrounds!

CU-T1701 Tupolev Tu-204-100E Havana Jose Marti 23rd June 2010 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

It rains in Cuba!

CU-T1280 Ilyushin IL-62M Havana Jose Marti 29th June 2008 by Chris Wood, on Flickr

More here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/68498610@ ... 965400921/

Nice set, Chris.

I know all about LIAT and their 'policy' of putting passenger's hold luggage on the next flight..............or the one after that, I have had experience of it twice.

Mike wrote: ↑

Tue Jan 03, 2023 1:45 pm

Nice set, Chris.

I know all about LIAT and their 'policy' of putting passenger's hold luggage on the next flight..............or the one after that, I have had experience of it twice.

I didn't realise there was truth behind the acronym! Fortunately all my LIAT, and Caribbean Star flights were made with my luggage!

747woody wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 04, 2023 4:36 pm

I didn't realise there was truth behind the acronym! Fortunately all my LIAT, and Caribbean Star, flights were made with my luggage!

You were lucky! It was common knowledge amongst taxi drivers and hotel staff when I was there, it's because the massive amounts of hold luggage that many tourists checked-in for their month's holiday couldn't possibly all be carried on a full Dash-8. The only chance of definitely seeing your suitcase at the other end was if the flight was only half full, sadly all of our flights were full.

Chris , nice shots . Were you beach fleet on triples ?

rgds condor .

condor wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 06, 2023 7:53 pm

Chris , nice shots . Were you beach fleet on triples ?

rgds condor .

I was with the other lot, on the QOTS

Chris , Big Bad Beach had QOTS before Triples . Did some deadheading around the Carib with Cale Tristars , think 12 cc 'n 3 fd were on a 'Bandit ... crew baggage went ahead on a twin Cessna !
Likewise in Air BVI days as Mike says , US travellers did not have 1 small kit bag . Thus the ex Dan-Air Budgies [ HS748s ] , had to have an Islander as baggage train .
Was useful on staff travel ,... went with baggage as an acting unpaid F/O !

rgds condor