Cash-strapped airline LIAT will receive an injection of $8million from four Caribbean countries so that it can continue to fly. The decision was made by the prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, and St Vincent and the Grenadines who met in Barbados on Friday to discuss the airline's future survival. The leaders, who met for over five hours, accepted proposals to put a restructuring process in place that is intended to make the airline viable by the end of the year. St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, the Caricom leader responsible for air transport, said Barbados, Antigua and St Vincent and the Grenadines will each contribute $2.1 million towards the immediate financing and restructuring package and additionally, Antigua's leader Baldwin Spencer will honour an outstanding $1.8 million payment owed by the previous Lester Bird government. Trinidad loan Meanwhile, Trinidad and Tobago agreed to grant a five year $6.4 million loan to help St Vincent and Antigua finance the airline's bail-out package. Mr Gonsalves said this was a continuation of the quest for a strategic alliance between the Trinidad-owned airline BWIA and LIAT. Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur stressed that if a merger between BWIA and Liat was to go ahead, it had to be within the context of a prior set of studies as to how both should be restructured. He said a merger could not take place unless the two institutions which are "technically insolvent" were restructured. Last year, LIAT received a bailout package worth Eastern Caribbean ($25 million (US$9.4 million) from Antigua, Trinidad, Barbados, St. Vincent and Grenada. The four leaders meet again in St Vincent and the Grenadines in October. SOURCE: BBCCARIBBEAN.COM