The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMASAIR’S new non-stop air service between Grand Bahama and Orlando was yesterday said to be part of a strategy to reduce the airline’s losses and burden on the taxpayer.

Bahamasair chairman, Valentine Grimes, and the airline’s director of marketing, Fred Donathan, said the new service will begin on June 19, with flights departing Freeport twice a week.

The carrier’s new ATR 70-seat aircraft will fly into Orlando on Sundays and Wednesdays, targeting both outbound and inbound traffic.

The new Grand Bahama-Orlando service will augment the airline’s Nassau to West Palm Beach service, and is the beginning of route expansion that will include the start of scheduled service between Nassau and Tampa in January 2017.

Mr Donathan said Bahamasasir was hopeful that passenger demand will grow to the point that it can sustain year-round service between the two destinations.

Asked about the cost of the service, Mr Grimes told The Tribune: “The airline is a part of a big organisation and it’s hard to say specifically, but at the end of the day we think it is the ideal time for us to do it.

“We are beginning a new era at Bahamasair where we feel we have turned the curve in terms of improving our service, and we are satisfied that the new service we have now, and what we will be adding to it in the next two to three months, will bring about improved outcomes; far better than in the past.

“We also think we will continue to reduce the losses that Bahamasair has been experiencing over the years to the point where we become less of a burden on the Treasury of the Bahamas.”

Mr Grimes added that Bahamasair’s five new ATR plane acquisitions - two 70-seaters and three 50p-seaters - are virtually maintenance free for the next several years.

“So that changes the landscape for us. Hopefully in the not too distant future we will be able to add more aircraft to the fleet. That changes the dynamics today as compared to yesterday,” he said.

Mr Grimes stressed that in order for Bahamasair and the services it provides to be competitive, it was important for staff to provide good service.

“I don’t want any customer to come to the counter and the agent is not smiling or co-operative; it really has to start. And I have texted the union president about when we can have lunch to talk and see how we can provide better service to our clientele,” he added.

Mr Donathan said there will be Bahamas-based advertising and promotions to get market the new Orlando service. Introductory round-ticket fares are as low as $232, inclusive of taxes that can be purchased online. The one-way ticket fare is about $142 inclusive of tax.

“We are in a very competitive business, and Bahamasair is a carrier that can hold its own with the best of them. The team is committed and we want to engage our people to provide the level of service that separates us from the competitor,” Mr Donathan said.

He added that the airline has re-started into offering travel packages. “For some time we have been absent from the all-inclusive tour bracket. We are getting back heavily into packaging, and we want to become the ‘one stop shop’ for all our customers’ travel needs - if you need a hotel, car, tickets to the sports game - we want to be a full service airline for our customers,” Mr Donathan said.

Grand Bahama’s tourism director, Betty Bethel, said: “I know that the introduction of this service in the past has always been primarily with a view to accommodating Bahamians’ summer travel. I want to also reinforce the two-way street here that we are sitting around the table, primarily because we want to see inbound traffic.

“We have already begun to stimulate the Orlando market. We had seminars, and travel agent and press initiatives to stimulate the travel agent market. We moved slightly away from engaging travel agents, but are very much 100 per cent on board with that process again because we know they still do play a significant role in selling travel.”