News Americas, BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Weds. July 6, 2011: The usually quiet Barbados Prime Minister, Freundel Stuar, is mincing no words when it comes to the issue of Trinidad and Tobago and the REDJet airlines application.
Stuart, according to CMC report, has accused Trinidad and Tobago’s administration of conducting a smear campaign against the low cost carrier.
He pointed to a meeting held in Trinidad last month where Barbados Minister of International Transport George Hutson was shown apparently questionable photographs about the airline at a meeting of civil aviation ministers.
Speaking at the conclusion of the 32nd summit of CARICOM heads in Basseterre, the PM told told reporters that his administration wanted to know how the game is being played with regards to Caribbean countries providing licenses to airlines to operate within the region.
“I do not intend that Barbados should be in the position of any mortician fighting a corpse called regional integration movement. I know what happened with the West Indian Federation,” said Stuart.
Barbados has already certified REDjet as safe even as Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar said her country has safety concerns about the airline.
“We are of the view that the safety of our nationals is paramount and, therefore, given the flags that we raised, complications of the aircraft, we are of the view that those should first be dealt with before we can go forward with the matter,” she said.
REDjet is awaiting licenses to operate between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. The airline already operates scheduled flights to Guyana.
St Kitts-Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas said that his country is also considering an application from REDjet to begin operating flights there.
