The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

LYNDEN Pindling International Airport officials anticipate a robust summer for airport activity.

According to Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) vice president of marketing and communications Jan Knowles, 350,000 people embarked or disembarked from a plane in June.

She said this summer is expected to be busier than the summer of 2022.

Enplaning and deplaning passenger numbers in the summer of 2022 included 296,000 in June, 355,000 in July, and 327,000 in August.

During the budget debate last month, Tourism, Investments and Aviation Minister Chester Cooper said tourist arrivals during the four months to end April 2023 were almost 30 per cent ahead of The Bahamas’ 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic that featured the previous record.

“Our tourism performance over this fiscal year continues to shatter pre-pandemic levels and further positions The Bahamas among the regional and global leaders in terms of overall tourism recovery,” Mr Cooper said. “And we are just getting started. At the end of April 2023, overall air and sea arrivals surpassed 2022 levels by 79 per cent and exceeded the banner 2019 numbers by 32 per cent.”

“Looking specifically at the numbers, between January to April 2022, we welcomed an overall 1.9m visitors. During that same period in 2019, we welcomed 2.7m visitors. During the same four-month period this year, we welcomed some 3.5m visitors with eight more months left.

“On this current trajectory, we fully expect to shatter the much-touted historic 2019 overall visitor arrivals numbers by the end of the third quarter and will conservatively welcome well over eight million visitors by the end of 2023.”