Caribbean Star and LIAT have taken another major step forward in anticipation of finalizing the merger between the two carriers. The latest development involves the publishing of the first schedule combining the flight operations of both carriers.

The new schedule, which was made available for bookings as of January 14, 2007, becomes effective February 1, 2007 and maintains service to all 22 gateways previously served by both carriers.

As a provision of the new schedule, all Caribbean Star and LIAT flights have been filed under LIAT’s airline designator code - LI.

Airline designators, also known as reservation codes, are two-character codes assigned by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to the world’s airlines.

They form the first two characters of the flight number and are used to identify an airline for all commercial purposes, including reservations, schedules/timetables, tickets, tariffs, air waybills and interline telecommunications.

“The sharing of a singular airline designator clearly illustrates the Caribbean Star/LIAT partnership in a tangible way for the first time and really puts a solid stamp of credibility on our efforts to date,” said Skip Barnette, president and CEO of Caribbean Star Airlines. “This is a strong step in the right direction, but there’s still a lot of work to be done before we can say that the merger is complete.”

To make the transition to the new schedule and airline designator code as smooth as possible for passengers, Caribbean Star and LIAT reservations staff are proactively contacting customers holding confirmed tickets during the affected periods to re-accommodate travel plans where necessary. All re-accommodations are being processed in chronological order beginning with customers holding tickets for travel on February 1, 2007.

Mark Darby, CEO of LIAT, commented on the new combined schedule, saying: “From February 1 onwards, we’ll offer a superior product with improved connections, choices of times and interline connections. We’ve also eliminated flight duplication and allocated our combined aircraft resources and equipment more productively, which will work to improve our financial position.”

New Check-in & Reservations Procedures

In line with Caribbean Star’s migration to LIAT’s “LI” airline designator code, Caribbean Star passengers will need to adhere to new check-in procedures. Beginning February 1, 2007, all Caribbean Star and LIAT passengers must check in at LIAT airport counters in 20 of the 22 destinations served by both carriers. The two exceptions are Curacao and Tobago where customers must check in at Caribbean Star counters.
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