The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The tourism minister has vented his frustration that "butt-busting" efforts to spark a post-Dorian rebound are being undermined by self-inflicted "hiccups" during the peak winter season.

Dionisio D'Aguilar, pictured, told Tribune Business that "we really must improve our game" after Harbour Island's 72-hour power outage over the Christmas holiday, combined with Sunwing's inability to depart Grand Bahama International Airport after dark, struck directly at the Ministry of Tourism's efforts to market The Bahamas as "open for business" following the category five storm.

He argued that the "fiasco" of Harbour Island, one of The Bahamas' most popular tourist destinations, being plunged into darkness for three days highlighted the need for this nation to have "resilient, well-tested back-up plans" in place to prevent such situations from spiralling out of control.

And Mr D'Aguilar added that aviation industry personnel should have realised the potential for Sunwing's return flight to Canada to be halted, and "been able to solve that problem" before it occurred, lamenting: "Everybody always turns to the politician for a solution."

He revealed that advice to the aviation industry has since been "modified" to ensure there is no repeat of an incident that forced the airline and its passengers to endure the extra expense and inconvenience of another night in Freeport, due to the absence of required airport lighting preventing night-time landings and departures.

The two incidents have potentially created some setbacks just as The Bahamas was making headway in recovering lost ground post-Dorian, and Mr D'Aguilar blasted: "These hiccups that we're having are very, very frustrating. We really need to improve our game.

"We had the Sunwing issue in Freeport, and the power supply issue in Harbour Island. Obviously the latter was not planned. No one ever expected it; that was very unforeseen. But we should have back-up plans, and the need to have resilient, well-tested back up plans was highlighted by this fiasco."

Turning to the Sunwing flight's enforced stay in Grand Bahama for an extra night, Mr D'Aguilar added: "Everybody always turns to the politician for a solution. It's somewhat frustrating that the technical people on the ground should really have been able to solve that problem.

"I run a laundromat; I'm a wash house guy. There are people in the aviation industry who know how to deal with these situations. It's incredibly frustrating that you go out and bust your butt to market the destination, and you bust your butt to get the airport open to international flights.....

"Everyone must have known this plane was coming in, and no one had the foresight to see this was going to be a problem until after the time had passed. No one was thinking about the problem until it presented itself: You have to leave now, it's past the time."

Mr D'Aguilar said Sunwing's pilots and on-ground staff must also bear some of the responsibility, given that they knew their arrival was late and that a rapid turnaround of the plane was required since no departures after sunset were being permitted due to Grand Bahama International Airport's condition following Dorian's wrath.

Yet he quickly added: "Our people on the ground should have known this might be a problem. People have to think. Politicians are not there to solve every problem. We need the help of the technical people to solve these problems. That was very, very frustrating.

"There's been a modification to the notice to airmen to help mitigate this problem. It's not my airport and I believe - although I do not know for sure - that lights could have been deployed. Someone has to care and make an effort to make it work. Usually, we find out about it when it's too late.

"Sunwing had to incur the extra expense. It's just frustrating that things like this happen and you go into a mitigation plan. We should be able to solve these problems well before they cost a heck of a lot of money and inconvenience," Mr D'Aguilar continued.

"Obviously, after the storm it's been a challenge to convince people to visit Grand Bahama and, finally, we've got foreign passengers to come. This happens and it's like: 'Aaargh'. Anyway, you live and you learn."

Expressing similar sentiments over Harbour Island, Mr D'Aguilar told Tribune Business: "It was incredibly frustrating that Harbour Island sustained a complete power loss at, of course, what is probably the busiest period of the year. It could not have happened at a worse time.

"The power supply was out for three days. A lot of businesses had to shift over to stand-by generator power, and that ran into other problems in terms of getting a sufficient diesel supply. The back-up systems that Bahamas Power & Light had in place failed to materialise, and the situation just compounded.

"There's no way to dance around it. It was a most unfortunate situation and, in discussions with BPL, I guess it highlighted the weakness in the 'Plan B' and 'Plan C'."

Tribune Business reported last week that a perfect storm of events resulted in Harbour Island losing power from early evening on Monday, December 23, right through Christmas Eve and Christmas Day until it was finally restored to all areas during the Boxing Day late afternoon.

This newspaper was told that the main power cable serving Harbour Island from mainland Eleuthera, which comes ashore at the Three Island Dock, was likely damaged when the barge that transports the island's garbage was driven by high winds on to the adjacent bank.

The barge, which is understood to be owned and operated by a company in which relatives of Rickey Mackey, the north Eleuthera MP, have an interest, is thought to have impacted BPL's cables when it was dragged off the bank. And, with the state-owned utility's on-island generators in a state of mechanical breakdown and disrepair, there was nothing to pick-up the slack when the cables went down.

With Abaco still offline following Hurricane Dorian, Mr D'Aguilar said Eleuthera - and especially Harbour Island - and Exuma would likely become the busiest Family Island destinations responsible for accommodating some of the vacation rental business lost in the Dorian-ravaged islands.

"For Eleuthera to experience what it experienced when it experienced it was most unfortunate," Mr D'Aguilar added. "I'm sure there were a lot of unhappy foreign visitors. Residents in north Eleuthera were calling me, those that know me, and I have family members there who were calling me and advising me of the situation.

"But we were very much at the mercy of BPL. There was nothing tourism or any minister could to. We had to wait for technicians on the ground to develop a maintenance plan and implement that solution. We had to fly in engineers to find out why the engines brought on to the island were not kicking in. It was very unfortunate."