BVI Airways issue

Only update I could find on the startup. Have crew in May who wanted to give them a try. Not sure why the political issues would delay FAA certification. I suspect the FAA may have concerns over aircraft range and maintenance support.
G

http://bvinews.com/new/open-letter-bvi-airways-says-its-disappointed/

Maybe we should start a pool on when their first flight is?

I'll take the over.

This seems to be what the letter is in response to.

http://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/5...ays-us-services

They perhaps have a point. As a condition of open skies rights to fly to the US airlines are not supposed to be subsidized by their governments. Seems like the grant/loan is a subsidy
G.

The whole thing stinks.... we'll find out soon enough.

The timeline for this was always completely unrealistic. BVI Airways probably knew that, and are now grasping onto this as an excuse.

When the Premier says that the government did not "loan" money, but rather "invested" in the company, it is hardly surprising that competitors might portray that as an investment.

You want to run an airline in U.S. airspace, you have to follow FAA and DOT regulations. How hard is that to understand?

Honestly, long run, I wish them the very best, and really do hope that direct service becomes a reality one day. But the way they have gone about this has been bass-ackwards right from the very beginning.

The thing that's curious is one of the comments of that bvinews article referring to another airline, one that Wikipedia says has been in business since the late 1980s, owns 1 airplane, and has never flown a single passenger anywhere while "waiting for regulatory approvals". That's possibly irrelevant, but Googling the 2 company names at once does turn up some interesting coincidences. I'll leave it at that.