The Tribune

HOLIDAY travellers had their flights grounded yesterday afternoon due to industrial action taken by Bahamasair pilots over salary negotiations with the government for their new contract.

The airline apologised for the pilots’ actions yesterday and warned that the industrial action could affect Bahamasair’s flights today.

The standoff comes during the airline’s “peak travel period”.

According to Bahamasair, union executives representing the pilots “walked out of a contract negotiation meeting” yesterday morning at the Ministry of Labour where discussions on salary structure for the new contract were taking place.

An industry insider said the industrial action started sometime around 2pm, shortly after the meeting with government officials.

Deputy Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis held meetings with the union representing the pilots last night in a bid to resolve the matter.

According to one traveller who was scheduled to fly to Orlando at 4:30pm, when she arrived at the airport two hours before her flight, ticket agents refused to check her group in and did not tell them why.

The disgruntled passenger waited near the ticket counter until around 7pm when passengers were told that all flights that evening were cancelled.

The passenger said she was told by Bahamasair staff to return to the airport at 8am today.

Last night the airline released a statement apologising to its customers for the inconvenience caused by the industrial action taken by executives and members of the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association (B-ALPA).

“This action affected all of our scheduled flights this afternoon with impact potentially into (today),” the statement said. “During the past six months Bahamasair and B-ALPA executives have been in cordial, respectful and cooperative discussions regarding a new labour agreement. This action took management totally by surprise.”

The airline said it is gravely disappointed with the pilots’ position, “after it was explained in great detail (yesterday) that their counter proposal was to be vetted by the minister of labour and shared with his Cabinet colleagues” today.

“Management considers B-ALPA’s actions unreasonable and unwarranted – considering the fact that these pilots are the highest paid in the region,” Bahamasair said. “Management feels that the current salary proposal submitted to B-ALPA is reasonable and places their salaries that much further ahead of the salaries paid to other regional carriers, particularly state-owned airlines.”

The airline said in spite of steps taken to make it more viable, “it has struggled in the face of unsustainable labour costs which account for 44.6 per cent of the airline’s total revenue.”

This has made it hard for the airline to achieve financial success, the statement said.

“This re-accommodation of the inordinate amount of passengers as a result of this action is an expensive one which we hope to bring to a close as soon as possible. Bahamasair is cognizant that this is the height of our peak travel period and we will do the best we can to mitigate any further disruption to your holiday travel plans.”

The airline said it hopes to return to the negotiating table with the union.