The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Direct airlift from Florida would boost annual revenues at all Long Island tourism properties by 20-25 per cent in the long-term, the Long Island Chamber of Commerce’s president told Tribune Business yesterday.

Joel Friese, who is also the general manager for the Stella Maris Resort, added that all hotels, guest houses and tourist-type properties would experience an initial 10-15 per cent revenue boost if longstanding issues relating to Long Island’s airports could be resolved.

“Something such as increased airlift from Florida to Long Island would definitely be a boost,” Mr Friese told Tribune Business.

“It would be initially about 10-15 per cent, and in the long-term 20-25 per cent ion revenues. You would see that for the island as a whole - for any resorts, small guest houses and hotels - everyone would benefit, homeowners in addition to ordinary Bahamians.”

Noting that the 4,000 foot runways at both facilities - Stella Maris and Deadman’s Cay - were shorter than the length required by the likes of American Eagle and Silver Airways, Mr Friese said serious safety issues also needed to be resolved at the latter airport.

In the absence of a fence around the runway, numerous property owners were crossing it on foot, bicycle or car to get to their holdings on the other side.

Telling Tribune Business that there had been “many close calls” at Deadman’s Cay Airport in terms of incoming aircraft hitting persons/vehicles on the ground, Mr Friese said that as a charter pilot himself he had experienced such situations “many, many times”.

Explaining how the absence of direct airlift to the island was impeding growth of its tourism economy, Mr Friese said Stella Maris’s affiliated company, Long Island Estate Developers, had handed the Stella Maris Airport over to the Government and Civil Aviation Department in 2006.

That airport was repaved and re-opened six months later, but Mr Friese said: “What Long Island is missing is longer runways.”

Both Stella Maris and Deadman’s Cay were 4,000 feet in length, but he pointed out that commuter-type aircraft containing 19-50 seats, such as those flown by American Eagle, Bahamasair and Silver Airways, would only provide direct service to runways at least 4,500-5,000 feet in length.

“It’s the chicken and the egg,” the Long Island Chamber president said. “To create the tourism and travel to the Family Islands you need to have the service there. On the other hand people say there’s no demand, but one has to be created first for the other to happen.”

Mr Friese said a further problem with Deadman’s Cay was that it was not a designated port of entry, meaning it lacked Customs and Immigration facilities.

With Long Island being 80-90 miles long, and the two airports 40 miles apart, the absence of Deadman’s Cay port of entry “hampers the development of tourism” in the island’s south.

For instance, visitors with boats based at Clarence Town’s Flying Fish Marina had to fly into Stella Maris, then take a one-and-a-half hour journey by car to their vessels.

Mr Friese contrasted Long Island’s plight with Eleuthera, noting that Rock Sound and Governor’s Harbour were similar distances apart, yet both had their ports of entry facilities.

Apart from necessary upgrades to Deadman’s Cay’s 30-year old airport terminal building, and the runway, Mr Friese said airlines and locals had been complaining since 2006 about the need for a fence to provide runway safety.

Its absence had encouraged property owners to cross the runway, and sometimes they failed to notice aircraft coming into land.

“There’s been many, many close calls, and it’s amazing that there’s been no accident yet,” Mr Friese told Tribune Business. “It has happened to me many, many times. It’s happened to Bahamasair, Southern Air, all the various operators.”

The Long Island Chamber president added that while all Family Island airports had received lighting upgrades to enable emergency flights to take place at night, Stella Maris’s airport had missed out “to date even though three charter operators are based there”.

Mr Friese said the necessary lighting equipment had been purchase, but “sat around in Nassau for years and we don’t know where it is now”.

Letters to the former minister responsible for aviation, Vincent Vanderpool-Wallace, and Civil Aviation had not provided any answers.

“We always get encouraging answers, that’s it’s being looked at, but we’re still here and nothing’s happened,” Mr Friese said.