The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE Tribune Business Reporter nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net VISION Airlines has "not been performing up to expectations", according to director-general of tourism, David Johnson, who told Tribune Business yesyterday that the airline's service to Grand Bahama was operating at about 30 per cent load factors - far below the 65 per cent expectation. That is not good news for Grand Bahama's struggling tourism industry, especially the Grand Lucayan. Several sources have suggested to Tribune Business that if Vision Airlines does not improve air arrival access to the island, and the Grand Lucayan's occupancies in turn, the latter's owner, Hong Kong-based conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa, may be tempted to close the property come summer 2012. Vision Airlines began flights to Grand Bahama on November 11, providing direct non-stop service from five US cities: Fort Lauderdale; Baltimore/Washington, Richmond; Raleigh; and Louisville. With its competitive low fares, Vision Airlines was expected to bring an additional 100,000 seats annually to Grand Bahama in its first phase of operations. "The Vision Air program is currently not performing to the full expectations of the sector," Mr Johnson told Tribune Business yesterday, adding that he was en route to Grand Bahama where he was set to meet with stakeholders on the issue. "The program is not performing up to the level we had anticipated. However, it is building and we are satisfied that the strategy is correct," he added. "There are some provisions that Vision Air undertook in the beginning that are hampering the success of the program, and those are the transitions and the upgrades we are working towards. One is that the distribution capacity of Vision has been limited. That has certainly had a weakening effect on the flights. They are unable to interface with a wide range of sellers of travel in order to attract business to the flight. Those are the corrective actions we are taking now." Mr Johnson further said: "We anticipated from a standing start that we could average about 50 to 65 per cent load factors in the first six months and build from that. We are not there; we are far from there on average." While not giving exact figures, Mr Johnson estimated that the airline was currently operating 20 points below load factor expectations. "We are easily at about 30 per cent loads versus being at the 65 per cent loads we had anticipated, and we need in order to have a sustainable flight," he said.