The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

The long-awaited aircraft accident report of the fatal January 2018 crash has been released by The Bahamas’ Air Accident Investigation Department (AAID). Incidents like these rehash national focus on the pervasive aviation issue of “hacking” in The Bahamas. A reference to hacking in short refers to the carriage by air of passengers by operators not licensed to conduct such services for reward.

Although “hackers” engage in unlawful activities in operating outside the authorisation of their licences; on the flipside the service that they provide must also be recognised.

Of course, as it stands from a purely legalistic standpoint, the most obvious way to address this discrepancy is to severely reprimand and discipline hackers for their violations. However, looking at the matter holistically and from a policy standpoint perhaps this is an opportunity for the Ministry of Aviation and Tourism to consider addressing the reason behind the existence of “hackers” in a proactive sense.

In the words of Aristotle, nature abhors a vacuum; and quite frankly the reasons “hackers” persist in The Bahamas is because they fill a vacuum. This vacuum is simply the gap in availability of frequent and affordable air transportation between smaller and less populated communities throughout The Bahamas. In an unregulated market (in terms of aviation routes and frequencies) such as The Bahamas, such a gap is a natural consequence owing to reduced coverage by commercial carriers due to either low or inconsistent demand for such service.

As recently highlighted through the Sky Bahamas Airlines reports as regarding their excessive indebtedness to Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD); the cost of operating aviation services is very costly. Therefore, as prudent business entities, commercial carriers will only opt to offer services to areas which they perceive as economically justified.

It must be noted however that this situation is not novel. The problem of servicing small, less populated and under-served communities in a domestic aviation network was also faced by the US post its airline deregulation. To remedy this the US EAS (Essential Air Service) programme was designed to facilitate service to smaller communities throughout and beyond the continental US. The EAS programme was created to specifically support commercial carriers providing service to small under-served communities that they would otherwise opt not to for financial reasons.

The EAS programme provides oversight and subsidy to commercial carriers to offer commute to smaller under-served communities. If The Bahamas were to implement a programme similar to EAS, (possibly funded by the collection of overflight fees by The Bahamas) this would bring commercial carriers back into performing this function and removing the void that hackers step in to fill. This would also serve to make it easier and more affordable to island hop in and around The Bahamas which could only augur better for our tourism product as well.

Strengthening the ability of commercial carriers to perform the function of commercial carriage by air (even to small communities) helps to better deepen and punctuate the designed divide between the function of general aviation and commercial airline operators. By investing in this divide and putting in place the necessary support, aviation officials can make it easier, more just, feasible and also effective to severely discipline and discourage “hackers”.

This will ultimately remove the safety concern that hackers present.

KEITH O. MAJOR Jr., LL.M.

Aviation Attorney

Nassau,

August 1, 2018.