Aviation needs a plan which will fly

As of Tuesday, August 8, 2017

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

A senior Bahamian airline executive said yesterday he was not prepared to simply ‘curse the darkness’ over the issues facing this nation’s aviation sector, demanding, “Let’s quit talking and make things happen”.

Captain Randy Butler, Sky Bahamas chief executive told Tribune Business he was eager to see what plans the Minnis administration has for the aviation sector, noting that addressing Bahamasair “must be a top priority”.

“I am open to supporting this administration in building this industry. I’m not at the giving up stage at all. I just want us all to look at the realities that we are faced with and come up with a plan.”

“We have the airspace agreement, we have tourists who want to come here, let’s go and get them. We need to involve the domestic carriers in the development of this sector.”

Mr Butler argued the government must create an environment which would allow domestic carriers to remain profitable.

“What is challenging to us is we continue to have an airline like Bahamasair that we are going to give $40 million to and they are competing against the other domestic airlines,” he added.

“We are competing against our own tax dollars. We have to address Bahamasair. We can’t continue to subsidise it the way we have.

‘We can’t depend on the foreign carriers to bring people here. Let’s go and build those routes we need and get the people here and get the demand going. When the legacy carriers see that then they will jump on board. I would rather see us spending money on that.”

Economist 7 years, 3 months ago

Mr. Butler's comments are correct when it comes to Bahamasair. It gets huge subsidies that we as a nation can't afford. We need to shut it down.

BahamasForBahamians 7 years, 3 months ago

Lol.. what a difference having your business partner in Cabinet can have on your political opinion.

5 years ago this man stood confidently against the FNM and all of its values, even waging a campaign against the party (when they were government) through his DNA nomination.

Now that his less than silent business partner is making rewarding decisions for their firm: he supports this administration.

Lol Randy is an all for me baby.. Lets see if his support for the this administration lasts longer than trump in office.

Aviator242 7 years, 3 months ago

Nothing Mr. Butler would want more than for the Closure of Bahamasair which is and essential service by the way. Ask Him why no other airline has a scheduled route to Inagua, Mayaguana,Acklins or Crooked Island only Bahamasair flies to these destinations, if it were left up to them the people on these islands would be up the creek.

bcitizen 7 years, 3 months ago

Do not get rid of Bahamasair. I am a pilot and when Sky first started I thought well here is what seems to be a decent airline and I need to give them a chance so the government can stop spending money on Bahamasair. Then there were two engine fires coming into Marsh Harbour airport. Then they crashed and destroyed one of their planes at Marsh Harbour. Lucky for me before any of this happened I stopped flying them because on my last flight with them my seat was not fastened to the floor correctly so it moved around and I thought to myself if something this obvious and wrong is going on how bad must the stuff be I cannot see? I am sorry to say it was my last time flying sky. They always seem to be in such a rush as to sacrifice safety.