GSD accuses Govt of deflecting from Volotea with new route

The GSD have accused the Gibraltar Government of deflecting from the Volotea flights by announcing a new route with British Airways to City airport in London.
This statement is the latest in a string of bitter exchanges, between the GSD and the Government after Spanish airline Volotea announced a new link to Bilbao, but it later emerged the airline lacked permission to operate the route.
The GSD said it welcomes the announcement by British Airways that it will run a City Airport route, but added the Minister for Tourism misrepresented this on a statement on social media.
“It is not, however, a new airline that has been announced as the Minister for Tourism has misrepresented on social media, but a new route from an existing provider given that British Airways own the carrier that will service the route,” the GSD said.
“In his GBC interview presenting the new route the Minister could not help himself in taking further swipes at the GSD and the justified criticism the Opposition has been making in the wake of the Volotea debacle.”
“It is quite remarkable that the Minister should have said that the Opposition are playing down Gibraltar or doing damage to it by its criticism of the Government’s obvious bungling.”
The GSD called the Bilbao flights announcement an “embarrassing episode for the Government.”
They added the Government did not ask the most basic of questions including if the airline have the permits to proceed and the Government statements had descended to “low level personal jibes”.
“Their most recent statement on Volotea and the Minister’s subsequent defensive interview when announcing the City route seeks to bury the matter once and for all instead of apologising for their clear mistake – similar to the one that the Chief Minister was obliged to provide in relation to the equally failed project that was Line Wall Road,” shadow minister for Tourism, Damon Bossino said.
“The Opposition will not shirk from continuing to expose this Government’s obvious failings on this and in any other area.”