By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Staff Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMASAIR General Manager Henry Woods yesterday dismissed claims that the decision to drop routes to Treasure Cay was a politically motivated punitive measure.

Amid calls for a domestic hub to service major resorts in Northern Abaco, Mr Woods confirmed that flights were stopped to the settlement in “early September” as a result of operational cutbacks, and equipment shortages with its domestic fleet.

While he acknowledged that a similar decision was made in 2002, Mr Woods maintained that the management decision was influenced by the airline’s mandate to slash costs by 25 per cent.

The route cancellation has threatened economic activity in the area, according to Stephen Kappeler,  general manager of Treasure Cay Resort, Marina and Golf course.

High transportation costs from the Marsh Harbour terminal have negatively affected tourists and locals, who now have to pay taxi fares of $80 – with $5 for each additional person.

“We are greatly concerned that in the interest of the North, not just Treasure Cay, there is no proper air service,” Mr Kappeler said. “What concerns us is that we do have one carrier that flies a few days a week to Florida, but there was no plan when Bahamasair was pulled out for any domestic hub service.

“It doesn’t make sense for visitors, a guest that is going to come and spend $150 per night, is not going to spend $85 on transport and that has cost a lot of jobs for taxi folk here who now don’t have anybody to pick up. As soon as they made the decision to pull Bahamasair there should have been a strategy, in the interest of tourism.

“It’s also making it unaffordable for Bahamians to get to the US,” he added. “Now that there is no supply and the demand has stayed the same, that has caused seats to go up to as high as $700. It’s not feasible for much of our public. We count on that airlift to bring residents, their families, their guests that they rent to. All of this combination has got everybody questioning what is the situation that there is no discussion here with the people of North Abaco.”

In an interview with The Tribune, North Abaco MP Renardo Curry said his office was in the process of renegotiating the airline’s return. 

Mr Woods also confirmed that the airline had been approached by “several prominent persons in the community” to provide an alternative service.

Following earlier statements on the critical need for job growth, Mr Curry acknowledged that economic fall out from the route cancellation was a “big concern”.

“The decision that was made,” said Mr Curry, “was based upon ticket counts going into Treasure Cay, there were a number of destinations they cut out. We’re in the process of renegotiating Bahamasair to come back. 

“That’s one of the concerns right now, I’ve had meetings in the north and it is a big concern, but hopefully we can have good news very soon to have some conclusion.”

Shrugging off claims that the decision was politically motivated, Mr Woods said that reductions were also made in Eleuthera with round-robin flights to Governor’s Harbour and North Eleuthera also stopped. The airline now alternates stops between the two settlements, Mr Woods said.

He explained that a similar practice could not be adopted in Abaco as the loads were not comparable.

“The loads between North Eleuthera and Governor’s Harbour are pretty much even, but Treasure Cay has less than 15 per cent of the load of Marsh Harbour,” Mr Woods said.

“In 2007,” he said, “we had seven Dash-8’s, today we only have five and one of them is under heavy maintenance for 10 weeks. We didn’t have the capacity to continue. We have another heavy maintenance visit in January that will continue until March. It wasn’t an easy decision, but one that wasn’t avoidable. We simply do no have sufficient equipment.

“With Treasure Cay only 22 miles from Marsh Harbour,” he said, “it’s a seven minute flight. It’s very expensive and very hard on the aircraft for an additional take off and landing.”

During a tour of the island this weekend, Opposition leader Hubert Minnis said “it would appear to be political victimization, when the PLP came in 2002 the first thing they did was close Bahamasair at that airport. Now they may use the excuse that the numbers were down, but having seen what you did then and the problems and the stress that you caused, if you are a proactive government – which they are not - you would have made plans to accommodate this with a commuter airline.

He added: “This is a government that obviously talks that they believe in Bahamians, but showing that they truly do not believe in Bahamians.”

Yesterday, Mr Woods said that no politics was involved. “This is strictly management. The board and politicians had absolutely nothing to do with this, and we have been mandated to cut the cost of this operation by 25 per cent this year, this is one of the ways to do it. 

“(Treasure Cay) is very expensive to do,” he added, “even those complaining are the same ones who complain about Bahamasair being a burden. We have to find ways to cut cost, we just can’t do it.”