The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamasair passengers were unable to return to New Providence until the early hours of Saturday morning following two mechanical breakdowns that left just one of its ATR turbo prop planes in service.

One frustrated traveller, speaking on question of anonymity, said: “Suffice to say I know I am, and I’m sure that the Bahamian public is, definitely fed up with Bahamasair and their constant delays. Tonight, February 21, is the worst of them. I was supposed to be on a flight from Marsh Harbour to Nassau. I have been sitting in this terminal from 4pm only to be brought with constantly hourly increment of delays.

“Only to find out, thanks to certain group chats I’m in, that all of their turbo prop fleet decided to break down - with one broken in Exuma at the time of this e-mail and a next in Nassau. Now we’re being advised that a plane will come to Freeport, first arriving at 12 midnight, and then will depart with us out of Marsh Harbour at 4am.

“I am no expert but I strongly think that these turbo props are being overworked. Especially considering the engine problems I’ve seen being reported in the news regarding them. Secondly, why isn’t Bahamasair transparent? The Bahamian public would rather transparency rather than everyone being hushed lipped about the situation that the airline is facing,” the traveller added.

“And my point is if Bahamasair knows they can’t maintain all of the routes why would they try so hard to maintain every route? This is unbelievable and I’m quite fed up with it, especially after being inconvenienced for them before with these delays....

“Why won’t they charter out Western Air to carry their passengers instead of keeping them held up for hours on end? It’s disappointing coming from a national flag carrier. It’s time for this airline to be revamped. But that’s all I have to say.”

Tracey Cooper, Bahamasair’s managing director, could not be reached for comment before press time last night. However, well-placed sources, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed that the traveller’s account was basically correct and that two ATRs broke down to leave just one in service.

“Friday evening, there were two ATRs that had a mechanical issue, one in Exuma and the other in Abaco,” a source explained, revealing that Bahamasair had to use its jets to ferry mechanics to Exuma and Abaco as well as return stranded passengers to New Providence. They confirmed that passengers in Abaco had to be ferried back to New Providence at around 3.30am on Saturday morning.

Of the two impacted planes, the source said: “One had a generator that was down. They took a generator down there and repaired it, and the one in Abaco had a compressor issue going on in one engine, so they had to fix the line with that. The jet had to bring those passengers out of Exuma and Rock Sound back to Nassau. Then go to Freeport and fly to Marsh Harbour to bring those passengers back.

“The difference with airlines like American is that they have spare planes. For Bahamasair, there are no space planes. There was just working ATR on Friday. It happens rarely. It was unfortunate.”

At the recent Routes Americas conference, Mr Cooper said Bahamasair has recently acquired a 70-seat, ATR 72 aircraft to expand domestic service thus joining the two ATR 72s the airline currently has. He added that Bahamasair is working with its Canadian engine manufacturer, Whitney Pratt, to resolve “engine issues” with the ATRs that are currently out of service.

“Bahamasair can rightfully say now that last week we acquired another ATR and it is to meet the expanding needs for the domestic market,” Mr Cooper said. “We still do have the engine issues with our manufacturer. We’re still working through those, and we intend that for hopefully by the second quarter, we should be able to have these matters resolved.”

Mr Cooper had previously reported that two aircraft were grounded since August due to delays from the airline’s engine manufacturer, which has faced supply chain issues affecting pre-airwork on Bahamasair’s five-plane ATR fleet.