The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

TRIBUNE Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMASAIR is poised to embrace artificial intelligence (AI) with plans to launch ‘Sophie’, its “bot agent”, before year-end to handle the more than 80 percent of reservations department calls not seeking to purchase flight tickets.

Tracy Cooper, the national flag carrier’s managing director, told the Abaco Business Outlook that the switch is not intended to replace staff but simply represents an effort to deal with non-revenue business more efficiently and productively.

He explained that 70 percent, or the majority, of calls to the airline’s reservations department are either seeking “quick information” such as flight times, or to change dates and tickets. Only 17-18 percent, Mr Cooper added, are income-generating inquiries involving the purchase of tickets.

Explaining Bahamasair’s rationale, he said: “Internally, for Bahamasair we are using AI as it will be more efficient for information. Our reservations department, if you look at all the calls it gets, and we monitor what happens with those calls, only around 17-18 percent of those calls result in the purchase of a ticket.

“The question is: What are we doing with all those other calls?” Mr Cooper, noting that some calls involve changing tickets, or switching the time and dates of flights and travel, added: “The majority, 70 percent, are calls asking for quick information: ‘What time is the flight?” Seventy percent of my people’s time is talking to someone and answering questions.

“I wouldn’t say it’s not productive. We are sharing information, but it’s not bringing in additional revenues. Before the end of the year, we will use a Bot agent called Sophie. Sophie, it will take the calls. As you give the information as to what you are looking for, and it’s purchasing a ticket, she will send you to a [person] agent. Other than that, it will go into the system, grab the information wherever it is in the system, and give you the information.

“It’s not that people are replaced. It’s just simply that aspect of it. We can do that better with an AI component. We are looking at it [AI] for both internal and external” use.

Mr Cooper, meanwhile, said Bahamasair’s ambitions to partially fill the airlift void created by Silver Airways’ 2025 collapse, and to launch service between Abaco and Fort Lauderdale next year, depend on the Government and Bahamian taxpayer providing extra finance to complete maintenance and repairs for hangar-bound aircraft.

“I know everybody wants to know about Abaco to Fort Lauderdale,” he conceded. “Bahamasair wants to do Abaco to Fort Lauderdale. We’ve wanted to do it since Silver stepped down from the arena. The only issue at this particular point is we just don’t have the equipment to expand to do that at this time…..

“We do have the equipment, I take that back, but it’s sitting in a hangar waiting for some help from the owners of the airline. I can say that we are in conversation with the Ministry of Finance. It was brought up in a meeting around two weeks ago, and they told us to come back with an expanded plan to see how to get those monies to get these planes out of the hangar.

“We’re hoping some time in 2027 to start that route from Marsh Harbour to Fort Lauderdale.” Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Island Promotion Board’s executive director, revealed that Western Air is exploring launching a route between Freeport and Abaco, and assessing possible days, times and flight durations.

Mr Cooper, meanwhile, said AI is “spreading its wings into all arenas”, and not just the aviation industry, with the ticketing segment and its “offering/order market” set to be among the first areas targeted.

“You have to be able to have your establishment AI-enabled, so that search engines start to pick you up,” he added. “If you are not AI enabled, that means search engines will simply step over you. AI, as it is now, searches out as many places and platforms, grabs the data and gives the answer to the person asking the question.”

Mr Cooper said Bahamasair plans to upgrade its website for AI so that persons searching on it can access information about the entire Bahamas, including all its islands and the various experiences, attractions and amenities each offers.