The GSD says it is “not confident” that Wizz Air will continue to use Gibraltar as a destination and calls for the August flight cancelations not to be “downplayed”. 

A statement from the GSD follows below:

The fact that Wizz Air has decided to cancel all its flights for August ought not to be downplayed.  This is not good news. Mr Daryanani has attributed the reason for the unexpected cancellations  to a change in circumstances – namely the fact that people can travel from other ‘amber’  destinations without the need to quarantine. The company itself openly admitted that it will go  where the demand is. Is that then not the basis for Gibraltar’s initial attractiveness, i.e., that  they only came here because we are a green lighted jurisdiction rather than as a result of Mr  Daryanani’s efforts?  

“The public is reminded of Mr Daryanani’s excitement when he announced the Wizz Air route in  December - attributing their coming to Gibraltar to his own personal negotiating skills and  expressing the very firm view that they would be long-term partners of Gibraltar; saying how  they showed ‘great confidence in Gibraltar’. He seemed to be much less confident of their  continuing relationship with us in his recent GBC interview though.” said Damon Bossino, the  Shadow Minister for Tourism.  

It is clear that the Government were caught as much by surprise as the rest of us when Wizz  Air announced its imminent cancellation of the August flights over the weekend. Where were  the Minister’s ‘personal negotiating skills’ then?  

As is usual with this gentleman, when a seemingly positive announcement is to be made he  ensures that he is right at the centre of it with the accompanying self-congratulatory remarks.  Yet when the news is bad, he plays things down or tries to distance himself as he did with the  Volotea fiasco.  

The party hopes that Wizz Air will continue to use Gibraltar, although given recent events it is  not confident. The wider concern is that there will be other casualties with airlines citing a  similar ‘change of circumstance’.