The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The deputy prime minister yesterday blamed the airline industry’s “slow communication” process for difficulties being encountered by Bahamians in boarding flights to return home.

Chester Cooper, also minister for tourism, investments and aviation, spoke out ahead of the weekly Cabinet meeting after reports emerged that some Bahamians have been asked to produce valid health travel visas in order to board their flights even though this COVID-related requirement was eliminated as of Monday, December 13.

He reassured Bahamians and residents seeking to re-enter The Bahamas that the Government has communicated the policy change to the airline industry well in advance, but said there was sometimes a time lag between when the information is passed down to all carriers.

Mr Cooper said: “I want to reassure the Bahamian people that we have communicated well in advance with all airlines. They had seven days notice in relation to the travel visa removal for Bahamians returning to the country.

“The communication was done through IATA (International Air Transport Association), the international agency that deals with travel and communicates officially with airlines, and we have notified all of our local partners, the heads of all of the local airlines.

“Anyone who is having an issue boarding a flight can call the travel visa number on the Ministry of Tourism site, the typical site where you would have applied. There is a hotline number.”

Mr Cooper added: “We have been advised by some airlines that their communication process is slow. Every agent in every airline, whether you are in Connecticut or Missouri or Fort Lauderdale, Florida, needs to be appropriately advised.

“We have been informed that the systems have all been updated in all of the airlines by IATA. And therefore, if this is happening, it’s simply as a result of human error and we ask the Bahamian traveller to call the hotline and the Ministry of Tourism will see where we can run interference to ensure that this does not recur.”

It is unknown how many Bahamian travellers have been affected. Mr Cooper added: “We did have some queries from many Bahamians, who are in varying parts of the US, some of them far away and some of them have steady travel paths to The Bahamas.

But we generally find that it’s the Bahamian who maybe is travelling from a place where there is not a direct service, or there’s not a steady travel path to The Bahamas who may be having these types of issues.”

The Davis administration says it has now kept its pre-election promise to end the travel health visa for Bahamians and legal residents travelling in and out of the country. However, the former prime minister, Dr Hubert Minnis, under whose administration it was introduced, has branded its removal a mistake on the basis there is now no way to authenticate if COVID tests are valid.

Responding to this, Mr Cooper said: “I think the former prime minister should enjoy his retirement, quite frankly. I think we are making decisions that are in the best interest of the Bahamian people.

“We promised the Bahamian people that we would remove the travel visa, and the Bahamian people, our constituents, indicated to us that it was a nuisance. We are comfortable that the Ministry of Health is putting in place, and has done a significant amount already to conduct contact tracing. They’ve beefed it up in terms of their procedures and we have ensured that we move on from the state of play where this same former prime minister was all-powerful as the Competent Authority.”