Ma­jor­i­ty State-owned Caribbean Air­lines Ltd (CAL) has award­ed a con­tract worth $405,600 to SM Jaleel & Com­pa­ny for the pro­vi­sion of bot­tled wa­ter, ac­cord­ing to the sec­ond to last en­try on the air­line’s pro­cure­ment plat­form.

CAL said it award­ed the bot­tled wa­ter con­tract to SM Jaleel on Ju­ly 8. The con­tract came three days af­ter the Sun­day Guardian re­port­ed that on Ju­ly 1, CAL de­cid­ed to dis­con­tin­ue us­ing Blue Wa­ters, which it had served on flights for over 15 years.

Blue Wa­ters was found­ed 27 years ago by lo­cal busi­ness­man, Do­minic Hadeed, who was de­tained by the po­lice, along with his wife, on June 24. Fol­low­ing their ini­tial ar­rest, the cou­ple were served with Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders un­der the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions. These or­ders ex­tend­ed their stay in cus­tody with­out im­me­di­ate for­mal charges be­ing laid.

CAL served Dasani, which is pro­duced by a sub­sidiary of the Co­ca-Co­la Com­pa­ny, for a few days un­til the con­tract with SM Jaleel was im­ple­ment­ed. SM Jaleel pro­duces sev­er­al brands of wa­ter, in­clud­ing Oa­sis, which is pu­ri­fied and dis­tilled.

As at Jan­u­ary 2024, T&T Gov­ern­ment owned 88.06 per cent of CAL, while the Gov­ern­ment of Ja­maica held 11.94 per cent.