The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamasair is aiming to add at least one new aircraft to its fleet every year through 2025, a senior executive revealed yesterday, with ambitions to expand its routes to more Caribbean territories.

Prince Storr, the national flag carrier’s deputy managing director, told the Exuma Business Outlook conference that it is looking at the possibility of acquiring Boeing 737-800 jets with an expanded 170-seat capacity so it can cope with tourism demand that is increasing “by leaps and bounds” and thus capture more revenues.

And, besides direct service between Georgetown and Fort Lauderdale to service Exuma’s expanding tourism market, he revealed that the airline is “in the early stages” of exploring the opening of new routes from The Bahamas to Antigua and Barbados.

“We’ve made a conscious effort to reinvent and modernise our fleet,” Mr Storr told attendees. “We’ve replaced the Dash-8s with ATR turbo props. You’ll see them coming into Georgetown more often, 70-seaters and 40-seaters. We’re still sticking in the Boeing 737 family, but replacing the 500 series.”

Bahamasair, he explained, was upgrading its jet fleet to the Boeing 737-700 model. These offer 18 extra passenger seats, at 138 compared to the 737-500’s 120, thereby allowing greater revenue yield at full or very high load factors. Mr Storr said the national flag carrier had just taken delivery on Saturday of a 737-700 aircraft with 148 seats, and is now “doing some last-minute preparations and it will be placed in service in short order”.

“We’re looking at a minimum of adding one aircraft to our fleet every year going forward between now and 2025,” the deputy managing director explained. “What we’re looking at, and been mindful of, is how the market is going and tourism is coming back by leaps and bounds.

“We have to look at aircraft with larger capacity. We’re looking at the Boeing 737-800 which runs up to 170 seats. This helps with the growth of the airline, and helps us carry more customers going forward. It will help with our revenue streams.”

The cost of the four additional planes, whether they will be leased or fully owned, and how this will be financed was not disclosed. Including the $32m estimate for the current fiscal year, Bahamasair will have required more than $140m in taxpayer subsidies to keep it in the air and ensure its survival over the past three fiscal years from - and including - 2020-2021. 

While Bahamasair is working closely with the Ministry of Tourism ahead of the imminent launch of flights from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Freeport - and by extension, Nassau - on November 17, Mr Storr said the national flag carrier is eyeing other route expansion possibilities.

“We’re also in discussions to launch services in other parts of the Caribbean,” he revealed. “Antigua and Bridgetown, Barbados. Those are in the discussion stage. We’re also looking at the Georgetown to Fort Lauderdale route. We recognise interest is growing by leaps and bounds.”

Mr Storr said Bahamasair was “working towards a post-pandemic business environment”, his presentation noting that the airline’s revenues fell by 22 percent year-over-year in the year to end-June 2020 - a period when the last three months coincided with the peak of COVID lockdowns. To partially offset these losses, the national flag carrier has cut operating expenses by 15 percent.

He added that Bahamasair was “poised” to play a key role in plans to develop Exuma as an aviation hub for the southern and central Bahamas, a project that while “in its infancy” is “being discussed at government level”. This, if it proceeds, would see the national flag carrier restructure its routes and increase the frequency of flights to and from Georgetown - not only domestically but with direct service to US airports such as Miami and Fort Lauderdale.

“Another project we’re excited about is Bahamasair venturing into international cargo” services,” Mr Storr added. “We want to provide that service to our customers from all the destinations we travel from to Nassau, and from Nassau to places like Haiti and Cuba.... We’re really excited about that and in the coming months will get that out more to customers.” His presentation suggested the airline is targeting 10 percent annual growth in cargo services moving forward.

Mr Storr also described Bahamasair as “the pricing police in the industry”, adding that it kept costs low for passengers - both its own and with rivals - on all the routes that it services. “Large airlines like American Airlines, when they fly to destinations with us, we have an effect on the pricing model because they seem to follow us,” he added.

The Bahamasair deputy managing director said the airline was also putting a bag tracking and tagging system in place so it could quickly locate missing passenger luggage, retrieve it and ensure it is sent on to the right destination. New systems have also been installed to “streamline maintenance” and ensure more efficient use of crews, thereby ensuring planes are in the air and fly more frequently.

The SAGE accounting system has also been installed to produce more timely financial reporting, while the provision of check-in kiosks will allow travellers to escape long queues before their flights.