The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Private Bahamian airlines fear they will be “cannibalised” by Bahamasair poaching their best pilots to ease its cockpit shortage amid the ongoing impasse over raising the retirement age to 65.

Anthony Hamilton, president of the Bahamas Association of Air Transport Operators, told Tribune Business that “a measure of this” is already occurring with the national flag carrier able to offer pilots “better benefits” due to its multi-million dollar annual financial support from taxpayer subsidies.

Arguing that Bahamasair needs “a proper comprehensive plan” to address its pilot needs, he added: “Where’s the feeder system for Bahamasair? That’ll be the domestic operators. In this kind of situation, the domestic operators suffer because pilots are attracted from them to Bahamasair by the benefits Bahamasair is able to offer.

“What we have is a kind of cannibalisation taking place. There’s a measure of it already. The domestic [private] operators train the pilots. Every pilot coming out of school needs to build hours. Where do they build their hours? Their hours are built with the domestic operators.

“When the domestic operators build this programme from pilots to captains and lose them, they have to begin the process all over again. It’s exorbitantly expensive for the operators. We create this despite fee increases, small margins and expense increases,” Mr Hamilton added.

“You can imagine the toll it’s taking on domestic operators every now and again when this cycle presents itself. Over and over.” Tribune Business revealed last week how Bahamasair is seeking to raise its pilot retirement age to 65 from 60, amid fears it faces an imminent shortage of experienced captains with eight passing through the ‘departure gate’ since 2022.

The national flag carrier now wants to lift its long-standing mandatory pilot retirement age by five years so that it can return this expertise and ensure a smoother succession, with a further three captains set to hit that threshold and leave the airline during the 2024 first half.

However, increasing the retirement age is inextricably bound-up with industrial agreement negotiations with the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association (BAPA), which have yet to be concluded. The loss of up to 11 captains, which sources said amounts to the departure of around 30 percent of Bahamasair’s most experienced pilots in two-and-half years, is also coinciding with the expansion of the airline’s fleets and routes.

And Tribune Business has also learnt that increasing the retirement age to 65 is bound-up with the outcome of a Supreme Court action launched by one of the pilots who has reached 60 years-old, Captain Joseph Moxey.

Legal documents obtained by this newspaper show he is arguing that the 2018 industrial agreement between Bahamasair and the Pilots Association, which stipulates a retirement age of 60, has been “invalidated” by the Civil Aviation Authority Act 2021.

In particular, he pointed to the Act’s accompanying regulations - especially Regulation LIC 070 (b) - as raising the retirement age for all pilots - including those employed by Bahamasair - from 60 to 65.

“By e-mail dated November 16, 2022, Captain Moxey informed the director of flight operations, managing director and deputy managing director of Bahamasair that the mandatory age of retirement was purportedly raised from 60 to 65 by virtue of the newly-enacted Civil Aviation Act 2021 and its regulations – particularly Regulation LIC 070(b),” Justice Fraser wrote in a preliminary ruling on an injunction.

“Captain Moxey also alerted the human resources committee of the Board of Directors about this purported change on November 25, 2022, who allegedly stated that the matter was to be addressed at a meeting on November 29, 2022.

“By letter dated December 30, 2022, Bahamasair notified BAPA about the purported change in retirement age. On that same day, Captain Moxey was informed by the manager of training for Bahamasair that his mandatory recurrent training would take place in February 2023 and that Captain Moxey must pay his TSA (Transportation and Security Administration) clearance for the training session.”

However, just six days later on January 5, 2023, Captain Moxey received an e-mail from the same training manager that “he was directed to remove Captain Moxey from the training session and that the initial notice was to be disregarded”. Captain Moxey wrote back requesting the next available date for training but never received a reply and, in the meantime, hit the mandatory retirement age of 60.

“Captain Moxey claims that, if he does not receive the mandatory training by February 28, 2023, he will be disqualified from piloting. He was subsequently placed on vacation leave as at February 13, 2023, for four weeks,” Justice Fraser noted.

Nine days later, Captain Moxey launched his legal action against Bahamasair and the Association, seeking a declaration as to when the Civil Aviation Act regulation stipulating a 65 year-old retirement age for all pilots took effect.

One well-placed source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the wait for Captain Moxey’s legal action to be decided as well as a split in the Association has delayed resolution of the retirement age impasse. They explained that, while older pilots are in favour of raising the retirement age to 65, their younger counterparts are against this for fear it will delay and retard their progress to becoming captains.

The Association, which has taken the position that raising the retirement age is inextricably bound-up with the wider talks on a new industrial agreement, wants to raise it to 62-63 in a bid to find a middle ground that will pacify all members.

Bahamasair wants to go the whole way to 65, and the Association is understood to be using this as leverage to extract significant salary and benefit increases for its members again in the hope that it will ease the concerns of junior pilots. Meanwhile, the airline is also hoping that the issue will be resolved for it by the outcome of Captain Moxey’s court case.

Tracy Cooper, Bahamasair’s managing director, did not respond to Tribune Business phone calls and messages seeking comment before press time. Mark Johnson, the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association’s president, last week confirmed that Bahamasair is seeking to raise its mandatory pilot retirement age from 60 to 65 and that this must be done through negotiations with the union on a new industrial contract.

One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that out of 32 captains - 12 working the jets, 20 on the ATRs - some eight have retired since 2022. That figure will hit 11 by June 2024 with three more departures due.

“Are they they going to keep these captains out, or move the age to 65 and allow expert knowledge to be around while giving up-and-coming pilots more time to be schooled so they don’t have so many new captains and officers flying side by side?” they added.

“The question is: What are they doing? The pilots who have retired, the company has not paid them out, as they are hoping something happens by moving the retirement age to 65.”

In a note sent to Tribune Business, they added: “From 2022, and up to the time of this writing, the national flag carrier would have lost an estimated 30 percent of its more experienced senior captains due to retirement, some with up to 39 years of experience.

“By June 2024, three more senior captains will be listed as retired. As these aviators leave, they take not just a substantial part of the labour force with them, but also decades of expertise and experience.”