The Tribune

* Burns through taxpayer monies in under half-year

* Chairman: 'At least we don't have zero cash flow'

* Adds two Cuban routes despite 'millions in red'

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamasair's chairman yesterday confirmed the airline "exhausted" its $19m taxpayer subsidy during the first four-five months of its financial year, but said: "At least we don't have zero cash flow now."

Tommy Turnquest told Tribune Business that the national flag carrier was "hopeful rather than optimistic" that its operations will start returning to something resembling its normal pre-COVID-19 schedule after the pandemic caused it to rack up "millions in the red".

Suggesting that the already loss-making airline had cost the Government and taxpayers "probably upwards of $30m" during the final months of its 2020 financial year, which closed on June 30 at the peak of COVID-19 border closures and lockdowns, he added that the removal of the mandatory 14-day quarantine could provide a timely Christmas boost by reviving inter-island travel.

Revealing that Bahamasair has also been carrying "some good loads" on its two new Cuban routes, to the cities of Holguin and Santa Clara, Mr Turnquest said he was "very hopeful" that the quarantine's end in favour of more frequent testing would spark demand for air travel during a month that has traditionally been among the airline's strongest.

"I can't tell you until we have some history behind it, but we'll look at our schedule as a result of it and maybe add some more flights," he explained of the quarantine end. 'We've reduced supply because of the lack of demand. We're down to 55 flights [weekly] and pre-COVID we were around 80-90 flights.

"Grand Bahama, Abaco, Eleuthera and Exuma were very profitable routes for Bahamasair, and into all of those we had multiple flights per day. In the case of all of them, they are now at one a day and not even every day. We haven't flown domestically on a Tuesday for weeks. It's a matter of supply and demand.

"It couldn't have come at a better time," Mr Turnquest continued of the travel restriction easing, together with the re-opening of Exuma and Eleuthera. "People wanting to go to a Family Island and see relatives don't have to quarantine, and people can come to Nassau and don't have to quarantine.

"November and December were traditionally two of the five busiest months. We have five good months - June, July and August, and November and December - and then a six month depending on when Easter falls. We try to make the money during the good times and allow it to stretch into the times people don't travel much."

Some observers will likely argue that Bahamasair has no good months, given the regular multi-million eight figure losses it inflicts on Bahamian taxpayers and the Public Treasury annually. However, Mr Turnquest and others have argued that this is a trade-off for maintaining connectivity on loss-making Family Island routes as well as opening up airlift to new tourism markets.

The Bahamasair chairman yesterday acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic had left the airline "millions in the red" more than it would normally be, given that it was burning through between $5m to $7m per month in costs with no income coming in when border closures and lockdowns were at their peak.

"We're having a hard go at it," he said. "We've been fortunate that the Government has provided a lot of support, and that has kept us going. I would say probably upwards of $30m."

As for Bahamasair's current financial year, Mr Turnquest added: "We've exhausted the budget. The question is do we get more money after that; the $19m they provided us with."

On the international side, he said Bahamasair had enjoyed "a pretty good Thanksgiving into Fort Lauderdale" after restarting all its Florida routes - including also Miami, Orlando and West Palm Beach - in a phased approach during mid to late November.

Passenger load factors on flights going into Fort Lauderdale during those first few weeks had averaged around 75 percent on the carrier's 70-seater ATR turbo props, although this had dropped sharply on the return route.

"There was a fairly decent demand for the day trip and overnight trip. That's out the window for now," Mr Turnquest explained. "The old model of the quick trip is out because of the need for a COVID-19 PCR test, which could take from two to three days to get the result."

He added that Bahamasair had finally obtained Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) registration and approval for its newly-leased 737-300 jet to begin flying into Fort Lauderdale and other US destinations from Monday, completing a process that began during Thanksgiving week.

"We've added two new destinations into Cuba, Holguin and Santa Clara. That's producing some good loads. We've been carrying some fairly good loads into those two cities," Mr Turnquest said.

"We're very, very hopeful, which is a little better than hopeful. Not quite optimistic. It's starting to look better. It's good to have some cash flow. We still have to look at our cost structure but at least we're not at zero cash now in terms of revenue, and that's a good sign."

Mr Turnquest added that with the leased 737-700 jet coming into service, Bahamasair had retired one of its 737-500 aircraft that was now past its useful life and sold the plane's frame for "a couple hundred thousand dollars".