The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Sky Bahamas chief executive yesterday said the full impact from the weekend ‘sick out’ by many of its pilots will not be known for months, telling Tribune Business the airline was effectively shut down at the worst possible time.

Captain Randy Butler said yesterday that lay-offs among his 126 staff were “last on our list” despite having lost “a lot of money” over the weekend, as operations were expected to return to normal “as much as possible” today.

Apart from the financial cost, which Captain Butler initially pegged at $123,000, is the impact on “goodwill” towards Sky Bahamas by the travelling public, both local and international, and whether this will have long-term repercussions for the airline’s brand identity and persons willing to fly on it.

And Captain Butler said the pilots’ absence had to be set against the overall economic backdrop of increased fees and taxes on airlines; the reduction in airlift into the Bahamas by 50,000 seats; and the continuing lay-offs among local businesses.

He added that the ‘sick out’, occurring over the National Heroes Day holiday weekend, had deprived Sky Bahamas of critical income at what is the slowest point in the tourist/travel industry season.

Captain Butler said Sky Bahamas also had to pay “premium prices” to charter operators and other airlines to take its passengers, plus handle all the Immigration and Customs overtime fees at various Bahamian airports.

Meanwhile, the union representing the airline’s pilots told Tribune Business it hoped to avoid filing a trade dispute.

Mark Johnson, president of the Bahamas Pilots Alliance (BPA), strongly denied that some nine of Sky Bahamas’ 21 pilots had staged a sick-out.

He told Tribune Business that no industrial action had been taken against the Bahamian-owned airline, which saw its operations significantly impacted over the weekend.

“We did not have any strike action going on. I got the call just like everyone else. I immediately looked into the situation and found out that there were several guys who were legitimately sick,” Mr Johnson said.

“I think about nine guys were sick. It definitely wasn’t an industrial action. If it was an industrial action it should have been 21 guys. I guess that after the guys began calling in sick, Captain Butler presumed that we had initiated industrial action.

“I guess they will be returning to work whenever the doctors say that it is alright for them to go back to work.”

Mr Johnson said the matter had certainly brought to the fore an outstanding contract proposal the union had presented to Sky Bahamas back in June.

“We presented our contract proposal on June 19 of this year. After that we wrote a few letters after not hearing any replies. We gave them two months to respond. They never responded. I have a trade dispute made up already,” said Mr Johnson.

He added that he was expected to learn today when negotiations on a new contract would commence. “Depending on how that conversations goes, it will determine whether I will be filing that trade dispute,” said Mr Johnson.

“I never want to be put in a position where I have to take industrial action. No one wins. It definitely doesn’t put my members in a better position. If the company is weak then the job security of my members is weak. I will do all I can to avoid filing a trade dispute.”

Captain Butler, though, told Tribune Business: “We’ve lost a lot of money. We were always on thin ice. The industry is on thin ice as a whole right now.

“What has happened is this has caused some decisions we had hoped to prolong. We’re a resilient company. It seems like right now our operation may be reduced.”

He went on to explain: “One decision that has come up is we have an airplane out for maintenance, and we lost an airplane earlier.

“Our operation may be down for the time being to a two-three airplane operation. We have been rotating some staff and reduced our international operations for the time being. Lay-offs is last on our list.”

Captain Butler said that in “a day or two” he would have a clearer picture on how much Sky Bahamas has been financially impacted, with staff meetings held yesterday afternoon seemingly calming the situation down.

Sources suggested that the Bahamas Pilots Alliance, largely made up of Bahamasair and Western Air pilots, had become frustrated at the more than two-year negotiations to achieve an industrial agreement with the national flag carrier.

As a result, the Alliance had turned its attention to Sky Bahamas, hoping that if it can achieve success here, other privately-owned airlines might follow suit.

Sky Bahamas is understood to view the affair, and previous offer, as an attempt to achieve Bahamasair-style benefits at a company that does not have the deep subsidy pockets of a government.