Caribbean Air­lines says near­ly 70% of its op­er­at­ing costs are in for­eign cur­ren­cy—an eco­nom­ic re­al­i­ty it says must guide how it man­ages tick­et sales and pay­ment op­tions.

The air­line de­fend­ed its broad­er pric­ing struc­ture, say­ing ex­pens­es such as air­craft leas­es, fu­el, tax­es, and main­te­nance are over­whelm­ing­ly billed in for­eign cur­ren­cy. “This eco­nom­ic re­al­i­ty ne­ces­si­tates a bal­anced ap­proach to en­sure fi­nan­cial sus­tain­abil­i­ty and op­er­a­tional vi­a­bil­i­ty,” the state­ment said.

The air­line was re­spond­ing to com­ments by econ­o­mist Dr Mar­lene Attzs, who ar­gued that Trin­bag­o­ni­ans should be al­lowed to book CAL flights on­line in Trinidad and To­ba­go dol­lars (TTD) us­ing lo­cal deb­it cards.