VI Airlink should be territory's flag carrier – Natalio D. Wheatley
“But I would like to see a carrier out of the BVI doing direct service to the mainland United States and then connecting the rest of the Caribbean and it doesn't have to be an extensive route structure but it would connect all of the dots for the [VI],” he said.
Brathwaite Jr, who hails from a family of aviators, was a guest last evening February 23, 2016, on the 'Speak Out BVI' radio show with host Doug Wheatley and a second guest Natalio D. Wheatley aka Sowande Uhuru.
The programme was aired on ZBVI 780 AM between the hours of 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm.
Natalio D. Wheatley said he believes VI Airlink is in the best position right now to be the territory's flag carrier. “VI Airlink is the local carrier which is in the best position to do that right now. I mean, that's the situation right now when we talk about local carriers,” said Wheatley.
The elephant in the room - BVI Airways
All of the guests and the host of the show stayed away from the subject of Government subsidies to BVI Airways, about which many persons have been critical at a time when performers, contractors and other service providers cannot be paid for their work.
Persons have expressed that if any assistance was to be made available, it should have gone to a locally owned operation like VI Airlink. We had reached out to VI Airlink for a comment regarding Government subsidy but our attempts were futile.
It was this news site that first and accurately broke the news on January 11, 2016 that the formerly defunct BVI Airways, which was operating at Beef Island Airport around 2010 and had closed its doors in 2014 because it was reported to have run out of money, was back, this time under new owners and with a bailout or subsidy package from the Government of $7M.
While this is not the first time there have been direct flights between Miami and the Virgin Islands, Premier Smith claims that the driving force behind the Government's investment of $7M was to help with airlift, even though there seems to be no guarantee of passenger numbers.
BVI Airways is to commence direct service from Miami International Airport to Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport on Beef Island later this year.
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16 Responses to “VI Airlink should be territory's flag carrier – Natalio D. Wheatley”
"we can no longer make laws to protect the locals"
Boeing 737 700
Price- 74.80 Million USD
Light Passenger Jets
Embraer 170
Embraer 170
Price- 26.50 Million USD
Mid Size Passenger Jets
Airbus A318
Airbus A318
Price- 70.10 Million USD
when you ready to buy, "dem boy ready to fly". bring your money and not your mouth. They could get trained to fly them in a few weeks.
That don't include the maintenance that have to be done, and parts that have to change if the plane don't even fly. bring the money for that too.
The other airline that don't exist get 7 million USD, well 500K so far according to the MOU to startup again. Hmmm