Friday, July 22, 2016
By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
A Bahamian airline executive said yesterday that, in company with local auto dealers, he is at the point of assessing whether to stay in business or not, having already scaled back operations and reducing staff by 17 per cent.
Captain Randy Butler, the Sky Bahamas principal, told Tribune Business: “We have had to reduce our employment by 17 per cent, and we have had to reduce our operations.
“It’s the same thing with the car dealers. It’s a very difficult economic environment, and you have this informal sector with hackers operating at the airport, which Civil Aviation isn’t doing anything about.”
Captain Butler added: “We are still at the point of thinking whether we are going to stay in this business for not. The Government has passed the Civil Aviation Bill and the Airport Authority Amendment, and it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fees. We don’t know what those are going to be like.
“The Government has been buying more airplanes for Bahamasair and focusing on the domestic market. That has impacted us a bit. We continue to work with the Government because we believe there is a way forward.”
Captain Butler said Sky Bahamas has been forced to cut back on its Bimini to Fort Lauderdale routes.
“We reduced the schedule on those,” he added. “We are now doing them twice a week when they were four to five days a week. It’s just not feasible.
“We are required to do double the amount of things to go into the US that is not required of foreign carriers to come here, such as just requiring these carriers to have a bond in place. We have to put a bond in place to fly to the US. These carriers also get subsidiies from the Government.
“We try to focus on the Out Islands - Exuma, Abaco and even Freeport. The summer is holding its own. August is when it peaks. During the summer we reserve five days for not flying in each hurricane period. We hope we never have to use them.”
Comments
John says...
Many businesses are facing the same question. Some have lost Hundreds of Thousands of dollars since 2008, only hoping the economy would bounce back. But since last year the economy seems to be slipping. One of the reasons is government introduced VAT as part of its tax reform. Instead of replacing customs duties and stamp tax with the VAT as was suppose to happen, they seem to want to hold on to both forms of taxation. This is in addition to the other increases on business license and other things. Chlorine to treat your well is 655 duty plus 7.5% VAT So these taxes and the web shops are sucking every available dollar out the economy. Since there is no growth the country is feeding on itself. It is hemmoarging. If something doesn't change there will be an economic collapse. Business people were taking out loans or using up their savings for the past eight years just to stay afloat. The government has taxed them more in the past five years than anytime in recent history. At some point it becomes the wise thing to shut a business down rather than throwing funds down a seemingly bottomless pit. Especially when national Insurance is facing its own sets of challenges and may not be sustainable if the economy was not change soon.
Posted 23 July 2016, 2:14 p.m. Suggest removal
killemwitdakno says...
Why does Bahamasair need to do domestic flights when they could look at the region?
Posted 25 July 2016, 3:39 a.m. Suggest removal
hallmark says...
Government won't sell Bahamasair. All of their friends, family and cronies work there. Also, what other airline is going to traipse government officials (plus friends, family and cornies) all over the islands for free?
Posted 25 July 2016, 3:44 p.m. Suggest removal
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