LIAT (1974) Ltd, also known as Leeward Islands Air Transport Services and operating as LIAT, is a regional airline headquartered in Antigua and Barbuda that operated high-frequency inter-island scheduled services to 15 destinations in the Caribbean. The airline's main base was V.C. Bird International Airport, Antigua and Barbuda, with a secondary base at Grantley Adams International Airport, Barbados. On 27 June 2020, the Antiguan prime minister Gaston Browne announced that LIAT would be liquidated following increased debt and the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The airline will be reformed into a new entity Liat (2020) which will continue to provide connections between the Caribbean islands. On 24 July 2020, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda secured an order for administration for LIAT and named Cleveland Seaforth of BDO as administrator of the company. Seaforth was given a 120-day deadline to devise a restructuring plan and present it to the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. The airline may collaborate with Antigua Airways, which will provide direct flights from Antigua to Ghana and Nigeria among other countries, to help transport passengers from other Caribbean countries to Antigua Airways' hub. History Leeward Islands Air Transport Services was founded by the late Kittitian (now Sir) Frank Delisle in Montserrat on 20 October 1956, and began flying with a single Piper Apache operating between Antigua and Montserrat. With the acquisition in 1957, of 75 percent of the airline by the larger, better known BWIA, LIAT was able to expand to other Caribbean destinations and to obtain new aircraft types, such as the Beechcraft Bonanza and de Havilland Heron. Hawker Siddeley HS 748s came in 1965, due to the airline's decision to phase out the Herons. In 1968, LIAT was operating some flights via an agreement with Eastern Air Lines to provide passenger feed at this U.S. based air carrier's hub located in San Juan, Puerto Rico and was flying "Eastern Partner" service between San Juan and Antigua, St. Kitts and St. Maarten. LIAT was not always an all propeller aircraft airline. After Court Line obtained 75 percent of the airline in 1971, LIAT entered the jet age, using stretched British Aircraft Corporation BAC One-Eleven series 500 twin jets for their busier Caribbean routes. Smaller Britten-Norman Islander STOL-capable (short take-off and landing) twin prop aircraft were operated during this time as well as 48-passenger seat Hawker Siddeley HS 748 "Avro" turboprops. LIAT operated the stretched version