GSD: “Government Cannot Hide From Fundamental Error”
In reply to the Government’s recent statement on Volotea flights, the GSD says Minister Daryanani “cannot hide from his fundamental error of announcing the new route before the required licenses had been obtained.”
A statement from the GSD follows below:
The confirmation by Volotea that the necessary licence to fly to Gibraltar is not certain to be granted, delivers a further heavy blow to the Government’s and Mr Daryanani’s credibility, no matter what Mr Picardo tries to do to cover up the Minster’s failings. Further reports over the weekend state that the airline may not even have commenced the licensing process at the time that the tickets went on sale and has now withdrawn the sale of Gibraltar bound tickets from their website. This further compounds the issue.
The position is clear and has been clear since it was first raised last Tuesday by the GSD. The Government jumped the gun, as Mr Daryanani had failed to do his homework. Mr Daryanani failed to ask the fundamental question whether the airline had the necessary licence to fly to Gibraltar, before making the announcement. The GSD continues to hope that the flights on the Gibraltar - Bilbao route will soon become a reality, but it was proper for the GSD to have exposed this when it did and question the Minister’s actions and thereby avoid the public from being misled.
The shadow Minister for Tourism, Mr Damon Bossino said: “Despite the vitriol and wholly irrelevant personal attacks against me, Mr Daryanani cannot hide from his fundamental error of announcing the new route before the required licenses had been obtained. This is a crucial failure, which he should acknowledge with humility and not behave like a wounded animal.”
Instead of accepting the error of his ways Mr Daryanani launches ‘under the belt’ personal attacks in an effort to deflect attention from his blundered handling of this announcement. When someone does that, you know he has definitely lost the argument, as he did with his proposed fiasco of the planning of the pedestrianisation of Line Wall Road. Mr Daryanani should be more circumspect about his public pronouncements and act in a way more appropriate to the public office that he currently holds.