As Minister with constitutional responsibility for Cayman Airways I would be failing in my duties if I allowed the recent irresponsible and self-serving charges by the Leader of the Opposition, McKeeva Bush, against Cayman Airways to go unchallenged.
Mr. McKeeva Bush’s accusation of criminal conduct by Cayman Airways, and by extension its employees, is an unjustified, irresponsible and selfish act. Why hasn’t he requested an investigation into the many accusations of price gouging by some supermarkets and hardware stores ?
This is clearly another desperate attempt to shift the focus away from the Boatswain’s Beach inquiry which must be causing Mr. Bush a great deal of anxiety.
Cayman Airways has explained the error that resulted in a small percentage of passengers being charged the higher than normal fares and have further explained how they propose to remedy the problem. There is no need for me to repeat that here.
I visited CAL’s Headquarters and the Owen Roberts International Airport during the approach of Hurricane Dean and I witnessed first hand the tremendous commitment and dedication of our hard working Cayman Airways employees.
The personal sacrifices which each of them made in an effort to evacuate as many of our visitors and residents as possible before we had to close down our operations is nothing short of heroic.
The government and no doubt the people of the Cayman Islands are eternally grateful to the staff of Cayman Airways for their commendable performance in very difficult circumstances even though Mr. Bush has once again attempted, unsuccessfully, to undermine public support for our National Flag Carrier.
Mr. Bush is obviously frustrated by the progress which we have made with restructuring our National Flag Carrier. I must put him on notice that I will not allow his abuse of Cayman Airways or its employees to go unchallenged. I will not allow him to pretend to be a friend of Cayman Airways when its convenient for him and go against them when he believes he can score political points.
The fact that we were able to evacuate almost all of our visitors and many of our residents before closing operations prior to the storm is in itself a significant selling point for the Cayman Islands and one that we ought to be proud of. We certainly could not have achieved that result without Cayman Airways and I take this opportunity to thank the board, management and staff of Cayman Airways for a job well done!
The PPM government regards Cayman Airways as an essential service. The National Flag Carrier has once again, during the passage of Hurricane Dean, proven that it is in fact an essential service and an important component of our infrastructure. No one must be allowed to undermine this key component of our successful economy.
Each time we deal with the threat of a hurricane we learn something new and seek to improve our performance. Our experience with Hurricane Dean was no different and we must thank God that the hurricane passed over one hundred miles south of the Cayman Islands and that our country was not significantly impacted and was back to normal in a couple of days.
Now let us see if Mr. Bush can resist the temptation to once again use Cayman Airways as a political football. Cayman Airways deserves the unequivocal support of not just the people of the Cayman Islands, but of all members of the Legislative Assembly.
Finally let me say that it doesn’t matter how much name calling and false accusations Mr. Bush decides to engage in. It certainly doesn’t change the fact that Cayman Airways performed commendably during Hurricane Dean and that the airline is being restructured and has made significant progress in the past two years. Thanks again Cayman Airways !
Honourable Charles E. Clifford, JP
Minister responsible for Cayman Airways Limited
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