The Tribune

BAHAMASAIR Chairman Valentine Grimes yesterday shot down questioning on whether taxpayers were footing the bill for Progressive Liberal Party supporters travelling on the airline to attend the ratification of Prime Minister Perry Christie and others last week.

Mr Grimes, a PLP trustee and former Cabinet minister, insisted that there was absolutely no truth to rumours, adding that such a practice had never been undertaken by the party in his lifetime.

He acknowledged that Family Island supporters used the airline to get to the capital, but did so in the same capacity as they would on Sky Bahamas and Western Air.

“There is absolutely no truth to that,” he said, “that doesn’t say there weren’t people who came down from Freeport and used Bahamasair. We had candidates from Grand Bahama being confirmed and yes their family and friends came down, as an example. There were people from different islands there but they also flew on Western, on Sky.”

An insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, claimed to The Tribune that one the airline’s jets had been pulled from its US route and redirected to bring supporters from Grand Bahama to the capital ahead of the party’s mass ratification last Thursday.

To this, Mr Grimes said: “There has been nothing untoward with respect to their travel. That has never happened in my lifetime in the Progressive Liberal Party.

“We are not made up of that, we have more respect for the government, for the people of The Bahamas to do that type of thing. As chairman of Bahamasair, nothing of that nature took place.”