By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A leading private aviation guide yesterday said he was contacted by 150 pilots in two hours to advise him they were no longer flying to the Bahamas after reading his latest blog on this nation’s new and increased Customs and Immigration fees.

Jim Parker, president of Caribbean Flying Adventures.com, a top pilot’s guide for planes flying in the region, told Tribune Business that Bahamian government officials appeared “completely clueless” about the damage the fees were inflicting on the Bahamian tourism product and economy.

Arguing that they were “running it into the ground” and “pricing the Bahamas out of the market”, Mr Parker warned that Cuba was likely to snatch at least 50 per cent of this nation’s tourism market when it eventually opened up.

He added that it was impossible for 90 per cent of private pilots to depart the Bahamas before 9am, and thereby avoid an extra $100 departure fee to Customs/Immigration, because persons wanted to either “get ahead of the weather” or arrive back in the US during daylight hours.

In his latest blog, published earlier this month, Mr Parker wrote that the “new bottom line for flying to the Bahamas” was a $250 fee increase for a four-seater aircraft with pilot and three passengers.

This, he added, broke down into $50 to land; $100 in departure taxes; and $100 in overtime fees “if you arrive or depart before 9am or after 5pm”.

Mr Parker added: “What are they thinking? The number of private aircraft arrivals has been declining steadily over the past five years. Yet another fee of $100 will surely contribute to a further decline in private aircraft arrivals and the loss of millions more in tourism revenue.

“The Government has completely ignored the blowback from private pilots over the recent $50 arrival fee for private aircraft, the increase in the departure taxes from $15 to $20 to $25m and the increase in aviation gas taxes and the increase in hotel taxes. They did fold under pressure from the commercial airlines, who threatened to curtail service. Guess we private pilots don’t matter.”

Mr Parker then called on fellow pilots to let the Ministry of Tourism know “you will probably stop flying to the Bahamas, and fly instead to the Florida Keys or the Dominican Republic or Belize or Puerto Rico where the fees are nil or less than $50”.

Describing the situation as “quite remarkable”, Mr Parker said of the response to his Internet posting: “In a period of two hours of sending that message, I heard from about 150 pilots saying they were not coming back to the Bahamas; that they were not going there any more.”

Pointing out that private aviation arrivals to the Bahamas had been “steadily declining” for the past five years following the recession, Mr Parker said that in some ways the 2013-2014 Budget tax increases were “just the tip of the iceberg”.

When added to the increased hotel and aviation taxes, plus Value-Added Tax (VAT) on the horizon, he warned that the Bahamas was “killing the goose that laid the golden egg”.

“I just don’t get it,” Mr Parker told Tribune Business. “They’re pricing themselves out of the market, and I don’t understand it........

“It’s a shame they’re losing business hand over fist. If Cuba opens up, that’s 50 per cent of the Bahamas’ tourism market gone. There’s no value for dollar in the prices being charged. It’s a shame those people are running it into the ground.

“If you want to be a career destination, you have to keep working the market. They’re ruining tourism right now, and when Cuba opens up that’s going to blow the whole market. It’s just irresponsible.”

Mr Parker, who has organised 30 ‘fly in’ expeditions to the Bahamas in the past 10 years, said the Immigration Department appeared “completely clueless” over the new/increased fees and the impact they were having on private aviation.

“They had no idea what a small plane is,” he added. “I told them five times I was not a commercial airliner, as they refused to acknowledge that. I was just stunned that they were so clueless.”

Mr Parker is challenging the interpretation of the Immigration (Attendance and Other Fees) Regulations 2013, arguing that they stipulated the $50 fee per officer, per hour, only applied to a location “outside a place of normal attendance”. He said that Immigration was instead applying this “across the board”.

Tribune Business has also seen evidence that fixed-base operations (FBOs) are being asked to act as vassal tax collectors for the Government, collecting and passing on what is due to it.

A November 13, 2013, letter from Dr William Pratt, acting director of immigration, to Anthony Hinsey, Odyssey Aviation’s PR manager, said: “Be advised that all Immigration attendance fee bills will be submitted to your office at the end of each work day, effective immediately.

“These charges will apply to all commercial, private and medical international inbound flights as prescribed in the Immigration (Attendance and Other Fees) Regulations 2013.”

Mr Parker, though, suggested in his blog that some Bahamian airports were gaining a competitive advantage by not charging the new fees, while others were levying them.

And while fuel rebates were being offered to private pilots, Mr Parker said they were meaningless because they were being cancelled out by increased hotel taxes.

Estimating that each private plane spent $5,000 per week in the Bahamas, he added that taking the “peak” 40,000 arrivals figure from five years ago translated into a potential $200 annual million economic impact that was being jeopardised.

Despite the “outrage” the private aviation market has voiced over the new and increased fees since last summer, Mr Parker said no response had been received from the Ministry of Tourism - as far as he was aware - until a March 7, 2014, reply to two other aviators.

Carol Beckles-Wilson, of the Ministry’s visitor relations department, had written: “Thank you for your interest in the islands of the Bahamas. Your concern is very important to us, therefore I will follow to the relevant person/persons.”