BVI Airways got $5M from taxpayers but owes BVIAA $99K
According to Premier Dr The Hon D. Orlando Smith during the Question and Answer segment of the First Sitting of the Second Session of the Third House of Assembly of the Virgin Islands on September 22, 2016, BVI Airways still owes BVI Airports Authority (BVIAA) $99,000.
The announcement came as a surprise as Premier Smith had said before that all outstanding monies were settled. “The matter has not been concluded as yet but be ensured it will be in the future,” Premier Smith said in response to Opposition Member Hon Andrew A. Fahie (R1) who asked the question of the monies owed.
“And we still take up money and give them to pay us off to do a new service?” Hon Fahie asked. According to him he sees no sense in pumping monies into an airline that does not exist while there was a local airline, VI Airlink, which could have been subsidised since BVI Airways seems to hold no advantage over the local airline.
Premier Smith said Government subsidies VI Airlink to fly between Antigua and the Virgin Islands and that at the time it was felt the better option was BVI Airways.
BVI Airways will fly or not?
Meanwhile, Premier Smith is optimistic that BVI Airways will begin service in November as announced.
“I expect that it will…we are working diligently to the November launch period for the commencement of the service.”
However, Hon Fahie is confident BVI Airways will not be servicing the Virgin Islands this year.
“There is no way that plane could play in November,” Hon Fahie said, arguing that the time it would take BVI Airways to get all the necessary approvals, including from the FAA, to fly to the United States will see the airline grounded way past November.
“If it flies before, Madam Speaker, I will stand corrected…If it flies any time this year I will pay for all who go on it.”
One of the reasons Hon Fahie has been questioning the start-up date for BVI Airways is because, according to him, the service is continuing to be marketed as coming into operation this fall.
It was also mentioned that it will not be the first direct flights between VI and US mainland contrary to what is being touted.
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11 Responses to “BVI Airways got $5M from taxpayers but owes BVIAA $99K”
Government forked over $7M of taxpayer $$$$ to BVI Airways, a defunct airline, yet BVI Airways owes the BVI government $99K. Unbelievable!
They say a sucker is born everyday.
As BVI Airways executives, perhaps, are sipping champagne and eating caviar, they are probably saying what a bunch of nincompoops, for it was harder to take candy from a baby.
Will BVI Airways ever get airborne? It seems to be doing quite well on the ground.
It perhaps without not much effort convinced BVI government to fork over $7M of scarce taxpayer $$$$.
Who initiated this dialogue on bailing out BVI Airways? Government or BVI Airways?
By the way, who owns BVI Airways? Are there any local shareholders?
Did the government employ sound judgement and sensible risk here? What return on investment should taxpayers expect from this deal?
What is the opportunity cost of forking over $7M? This $7M could have been invested on roads, school improvements, pay debts…….etc.
How does this give away rank among poor decisions made by current and past governments?
What is the government going to invest in improving ferry services between VI and USVI or Tortola and VG or Tortola and Anegada? Are ferry operators chopped liver? Oh, my bad! They are local so let them eat cake, as Marie-Antoinette, former Queen of France during the French Revolution, once proclaims. Enough of the nonsense already!