The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net BAHAMASAIR is expected to begin a full schedule service between Grand Bahama and five US cities in two-and-a-half weeks' time, the Ministry of Tourism's director-general yesterday saying a new cost formula would reduce air fares to the struggling island by 50 per cent, and travel time by 75 per cent. David Johnson, giving a preview of his address to the upcoming Grand Bahama Business Outlook conference, said discussions were nearly complete on the transition that would enable the national flag carrier to service those routes. The move is being seen as a vital step to reviving airlift and Grand Bahama's tourism economy. Mr Johnson said: "They now have the route authority to fly Baltimore, Raleigh, Louisville, Richmond, in addition to Fort Lauderdale to Grand Bahama. Vision Air is offering an ACMI or wet lease arrangement, while Bahamasair takes on the distribution, selling and the customer service as they gear up to, in fact, fly the flights with their own aircraft in short order." Vision Airlines began flights to Grand Bahama last November 11, providing direct non-stop service from five US cities. Its competitive low fares were expected to bring an additional 100,000 seats annually to Grand Bahama in its first phase of operations. Mr Johnson had previously told Tribune Business that Vision Airlines had not been performing up to expectations. He said the airline's service to Grand Bahama was operating at about 30 per cent load factors - far below the 65 per cent expectation. Yesterday, Mr Johnson added of the new plans: "The cost structure alone offers the customers much lower costs. Baltimore to Grand Bahama today requires you to fly about 15 hours round trip, and the airfare will be no less than $650. "On these flights it will take you two hours and twenty minutes, and the airfare is less than $300 round trip. We are cutting airfare back more than 50 per cent, and reducing travel time by more than 75 per cent. It will be a full scheduled service within two-and-a-half weeks where anybody can book. This service will represent about 100,000 seats to Grand Bahama, which is a base of almost 35 per cent more seats than currently exists to Grand Bahama year around. We intend to build on that. Bahamasair is facilitating this and enthusiastically so." Mr Johnson said that in spite of the growing cruise traffic to Grand Bahama, rising at a rate of about 10-12 per cent per year, the spend was not there. Mr Johnson said: "Grand Bahamians have not invested sufficiently in expanding the menus of tour options, which is lucrative for the cruise ships but also for them. We have not capitalised on Grand Bahama's location to make it the low cost, air access destination for the east coast, including Florida."