The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor A LEADING Bahamian-owned airline yesterday said its fee costs had increased by a cumulative 18 per cent over the past three years, saying the charges levied by various agencies had placed "an undue burden" on the entire sector. Captain Randy Butler, president and chief executive of Sky Bahamas, said some of the fees levied by the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) to pay for the $409.5 million Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) redevelopment had risen by 20 per cent "in some cases" in recent years. Noting the Chapter 11 bankruptcy problems facing AMR Corporation, parent company of American Eagle and American Airlines, Captain Butler told Tribune Business: "It does speak again to the kind of challenges the industry is having over there, and is having over here, too. "Our fees and things charged by the Government are still increasing. We still have to get the Government to step in and take a look at this sector, and see what is going on with the carriers." The DNA candidate for North Andros and the Berry Islands added: "I couldn't tell you off-hand how much the increases are, but the NAD fees, in some cases, over the last couple of years have gone up 20 per cent. "The Civil Aviation Department has introduced new fees, not always anticipated, and some of those fees are for services not yet provided. That's really an additional undue burden on us...... "My costs have gone up by 18 per cent in three years on fees alone." Among the fee increases incurred by the Bahamian aviation industry have been landing fees, terminal fees, security fees and passenger facility fees. Captain Butler added that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) was continuing to charge Bahamian airlines to overfly this nation's airspace, while application fees to Civil Aviation had also risen. Returning to one of his favourite themes, Captain Butler said Bahamasair continued to exploit its government subsidy by not passing on cost increases to its passengers, thereby undercutting rival private sector airlines. "I'm trying to be creative by reducing schedules and flights, but I can only do so much as I have certain service standards to maintain," he told Tribune Business. But Vernice Walkine, NAD's vice-president of marketing and communications, told this newspaper yesterday that no airlines were having "egregious" difficulties in paying the LPIA operator their full bills on time. "Some are good, some are better and some are not so good," she said of bill paying by the airlines stationed at LPIA. "It's not egregious as if someone's refusing to pay, and they make good on it, stay current or try and work up arrangements to pay of what's past due. "Unless it becomes egregious, it's not something we talk about everyday, and everyone's behaving pretty well right now."