A sharp political dispute has erupted in St. Vincent and the Grenadines over claims of a multi-million-dollar outstanding debt owed to US-based carrier JetBlue, with opposition leader Ralph Gonsalves pushing back hard against assertions from the incoming New Democratic Party administration. The former prime minister, whose Unity Labour Party was voted out of power in November last year, took to his party’s radio platform on Monday to refute the claim that his government left the new cabinet with an accrued EC$10 million liability to the airline.
The controversial figure was first raised by current Tourism Minister Kishore Shallow in Parliament last Thursday, during a response to a question from opposition senator Keisal Peters. Notably, neither Gonsalves nor Carlos James, the ULP’s former tourism minister, publicly challenged the number during the parliamentary sitting. But Gonsalves offered a full correction days later, breaking down the terms of the agreement his administration reached to attract JetBlue service to the country.
Gonsalves confirmed that a revenue guarantee agreement does exist with JetBlue, a standard policy tool used across the Eastern Caribbean to secure new international air routes, which are critical to the region’s tourism-dependent economy. He explained the pact combines initial start-up funding for the new route with a guaranteed minimum revenue floor for the carrier, a common structure to offset the risk of launching service to a smaller market. Contrary to Shallow’s framing, however, the opposition leader said the EC$10 million figure cited is not an actual accrued debt.
He noted that JetBlue only invoices for any shortfall between actual revenue and the guaranteed threshold on an annual basis. October 2024 marked exactly one year since the airline launched its route to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, meaning no annual shortfall invoice could have been outstanding when the ULP left office. Gonsalves added that the maximum total government exposure over the lifetime of the agreement caps out at roughly US$2 million, equal to EC$5.38 million, and even that is a ceiling, not a pre-determined owed amount. He clarified that the EC$10 million number cited by Shallow refers to the full maximum potential payout across the entire term of the deal, not an accrued liability left by the previous administration.
Beyond correcting the debt figure, Gonsalves also criticized Shallow’s broader approach to the agreement, saying the minister’s public questioning of the contract’s professionalism and his stated plan to renegotiate the deal is dangerous policy. He warned that this kind of public messaging sends an unhelpful negative signal to JetBlue, putting the future of the critical air route at unnecessary risk, which could harm the country’s tourism sector in the long run.