Vincentian communications professional Shavar Maloney has been appointed as the new Corporate Communications Manager for regional airline, LIAT.
He replaces the previous spokesperson, Desmond Brown, who resigned suddenly last June after a decade in the post.
Maloney was up until December a lecturer in the Department of Business and General Studies the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College, where he had been employed since August 2013.
He is no stranger to the travel industry or LIAT, having worked as a customer service agent with the airline from December 2007 to November 2010.
During that time, Maloney was responsible for making and ticketing reservations, checking-in and boarding of passengers, and preparing and completing the loading instructions sheet, trim sheet and load sheets as well as the manifesting of Quikpaks — the airline’s cargo service.
He was also a customer service agent with Vincy Aviation Services from April 2006 to November 2007, during which time he had similar responsibilities as he later did at LIAT.
Maloney is a 2013 graduate of the University of the West Indies, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in media and communications with first class honours.
After leaving LAIT, Maloney sometimes used social and new media to offer tips to the airline about how it should handle its communication.
He also used his experience with the airline to share tips with its customers.
In the summer of 2014, he published a blog entry, “5 travel tips if you’re flying with LIAT this summer”, saying he had decided to do so because, with Vincy Mas days away, he had suddenly had “a flood of people asking me what to do since they are travelling in on LIAT”.
In the post, Maloney said: “I love LIAT a lot but that does not mean that I don’t know the drama that comes with travelling with the airline during the summer.”
Now, Maloney will be paid to help LIAT to improve its image.