The Tribune

THEY are the lifeline to the Family Islands – those smaller planes that operate as scheduled charters, criss-crossing the skies day after day. Western Air, Pineapple Air, Southern Air, Titan, Flamingo, LeAir and more, as essential to local economies from Bimini in the north to Ragged and Crooked in the south, as air and water are to life itself.

From the crack of dawn till the sun sets, these winged friends of Family Islands take off and land, often with only minutes between landings and departures. Hundreds of travellers, mostly Bahamian, walk out onto the apron of Bahamian airports, climb the metal steps and enter, taking their seat, trusting that what the aircraft they are entrusting with their life lacks in cosmetics they more than compensate for by being safe for the 20- or 50-minute hop from one island to the other.

A passenger may be travelling light with little more than an overnight bag, but their most important carry-on is trust.

But just how friendly are the skies of The Bahamas? It was not long ago that Flamingo Air was grounded after a door flew open. Miraculously, no one was killed, but the incident was a wake-up call, not on the order of the Ethiopian tragedy or the Alaska Air mid-air panel blow out that brought Boeing to its knees, temporarily grounding Max 737s, but serious enough that we have to ask ourselves: Is it time we took a long, hard look at how safe air travel is across the islands, and why it is that these operators who work at meeting schedules and remaining viable have to struggle so to keep afloat when we depend on them so greatly?

It's important to understand the difference, first, between how the FAA and the Civil Aviation Authority operate. Those scheduled charters, for the most part, fall under the purview of the CAA, an historically underfunded agency that is charged with oversight and safety management. That also makes it responsible for checking airports, runways, lights, radar and more.

Many safety checks of aircraft are random, done without warning for obvious reasons so the operator cannot alter something for a temporary appearance. Those checks may be as unannounced as pulling up and checking fuel for contamination. Other checks are required – the monthly, 100-hour, annual. Inspections for airframe and checks for engine can be quite different and the Civil Aviation Authority has a mandate to handle all despite its limited resources so often a partnership develops – as experts say it should – with the operator and the regulator trusting one another to ensure that conditions are met. This is not slackness on the part of CAA; this is the reality of how constant checks are met and reported.

But the real problem lies not with inspections. Nor does it lie with the operator who must choose between paying a competent pilot what he or she is worth and redoing the upholstery on the headliner.

The real problem lies in access to capital for the local airline operator. Even banks that are somewhat business friendly shy away from lending on assets that can literally get up and fly away. So historically charter air carriers in The Bahamas have been like Chinese restaurants and laundries, launched with funds from family, money raised from selling a piece of family land or a fund-raiser with related partners. With what would be considered a more high-end market, those private charters that fly out of Odyssey or Executive, funding opportunities may vary, but even for them, family is paramount. For the scheduled charters operating out of General Aviation or the domestic terminal at LPIA, funding is a constant struggle.

Fortunately, for one of the local scheduled charter companies, an alternative lending company is arranging financing of a newer aircraft. Were other banks and lending institutions more progressive in their thinking and more open-minded in risk management or were some of the subsidies or concessions once extended to Bahamasair or major airlines that bring in visitors extended to local owners and operators, the skies of The Bahamas might be just that much safer for Bahamians.

The Bahamas might also want to take a look at what others are doing with aircraft registries. The UK created a deliberate fund for air and airport improvement with monies raised through the registry. The Irish registry does for that nation what the ship registry does for The Bahamas, a fund-raiser that provides the funds to turn vision into reality.

Says one of the leading experts in international air transport and long-time proponent of a functional aircraft registry, former pilot and now veteran lawyer Llewellyn Boyer-Cartwright, the ultimate goal is not the money raised, but the safety that results.

“You cannot put anything above the well-being of the Bahamian people, including Bahamians moving between islands,” said Boyer-Cartwright. “You cannot compromise. You have to be proactive, you can’t be reactive, you have to be two steps ahead.”

In the air, reactive is too late.