By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Cabinet minister yesterday estimated that an investment worth “tens of millions” is necessary to prevent a repeat of the Christmas “black eye” suffered by Nassau’s main gateway.

Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business he had challenged all Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) stakeholders “to do their homework to improve the overall experience” following the delays experienced by aircraft and passengers alike.

Admitting that the Christmas period “wasn’t pretty”, Mr D’Aguilar said that among the reforms being eyed is a “slotting programme” where private planes are given specific take-off and landing times at LPIA during the airport’s three peak periods annually.

Identifying the others as the Easter and Thanksgiving holidays, he added that the “airspace challenges” had largely resulted from the growth in private plane traffic coupled with the tendency of many pilots to show up unannounced at LPIA expecting to be given permission to land instantly.

Mr D’Aguilar revealed that air traffic control, known as the Bahamas Air Navigation Services department (BANS), has been tasked with improving its relationship with their Miami counterparts in a bid to prevent any future aircraft “pile ups” in this nation’s air space.

Whether “optimal use” was made of LPIA’s runways over Christmas is also under review, the minister added, with the airport’s operator needing to make infrastructure upgrades that may include “a new taxiway” to facilitate the movement of private planes between runway and Odyssey Aviation, the fixed base operator (FBO) that caters to these aircraft.

The Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD) has also been asked to analyse options for passengers to exit an aircraft without requiring a jet bridge. Even the Airport Authority has not been spared, having been charged with solving “the endless problems” with LPIA’s baggage system.

Mr D’Aguilar said he was now able to approach commercial airlines serving LPIA with “a plan to mitigate the issues they experienced” during Christmas 2018, having waited to meet with them until this was in place.

Recalling the problems experienced by The Bahamas’ main entry way, Mr D’Aguilar said the increase in aircraft traffic was driven by rise in private plane numbers rather than commercial (paying passenger) flights. He added that traffic volume over Christmas was between 30-40 percent lower than some estimates he had seen.

“The facts revealed that, as far as commercial aircraft are concerned, the amount of traffic remained constant and may even have decreased slightly,” he told Tribune Business. “Instead of the commercial carriers sending more flights to The Bahamas they’re sending more planes.

“The airlines are bringing in more people via bigger planes and are not, in a substantial way, adding more planes to a route although we’ve seen new routes opened.” While there had been suggestions that LPIA had failed to cope with increased commercial flights driven by Baha Mar’s opening and a 16 percent rise in air arrivals, Mr D’Aguilar said this was not correct.

Rather, he added: “The traffic being generated is general aviation. The private aircraft are coming here in greater numbers, and that’s what is bumping up the aircraft movement numbers.

“What we found was, despite all the noise in the marketplace about 1,000-1,200 aircraft movements, it was somewhere between 650-700 in and out of Nassau and LPIA, landing and taking off daily.” Mr D’Aguilar said the 1,000-1,200 figure likely referred to the number of aircraft moving through Bahamian air space, not the amount that landed and then took off from LPIA.

Providing details on how Nassau’s airport and its agencies plan to prevent a repeat of the Christmas problems, the Minister told Tribune Business: “I’ve asked air traffic control to review whether they were optimally using the runway.

“There were long lags between landings and take-off. That complaint was made by some of the FBO operators; that the runways were not being used optimally. I’ve asked them to look at that. Also, the airlines were complaining that they were not getting adequate communication about the challenges we were having at the airport.

“We’ve asked them to reach out to Miami air traffic control to establish a clear relationship, especially at the busy periods. Instead of having planes pile up in Nassau, slow them down.”

Mr D’Aguilar said air traffic control had been directed to focus on private aircraft in particular in developing a strategy to deal with increased traffic volumes. “These air space challenges are because there is a lot of general aviation,” he explained.

“At many Family Island airports, people come and just take off, and then pop up at LPIA and say they need to land. What we’re trying to do with general aviation over Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas, because those are the busiest periods of the year - for 20 days we are exceptionally busy - is we’ve asked them to develop a slotting programme for general aviation.

“Commercial airlines are not going to change their schedule, but we said go look at slotting and working with the FBOs on that. Let’s look at how many aircraft movements we expect, and look at a sensible process for general aviation to come into that airport.”

The significant delays experienced by frustrated Bahamian and tourist passengers alike blighted the Christmas period, impacting the visitor departure experience and ensuring the final impression of The Bahamas for some was not favourable - the very outcome that the Ministry of Tourism seeks to avoid at all costs.

Turning to NAD’s role, Mr D’Aguilar said of the LPIA operator: “NAD needs some infrastructure upgrades - parking, taxiways and easier access for general aviation to get to Odyssey but not sit on the runway the entire time.

“Facilitating the taxiing of planes to Odyssey, they may possibly need to put in a new taxiway to facilitate that. New parking spaces and options for passengers to deplane without a jet bridge are also under review.”

Making sure no one was left out, Mr D’Aguilar added: “We’ve had endless problems with the baggage system at that airport. The Airport Authority, which has responsibility for the baggage area and screening, has been challenged to address these issues.

“Everybody has got their homework to do to improve the overall experience. As our traffic increases, everybody needs to go and do their homework on these challenges we’re having at LPIA. I’ve challenged them all to do that.

“Over Christmas we got two black eyes on the 22nd and 27th, and as much as possible I rallied all the stakeholders together, sat them down and heard what they had to say: What the challenges were, and coming up with a plan to mitigate them,” he continued.

“Some we can do right away. Some will take a little time and money. I’m sure it’s in the tens of millions when you combine all that has to be done. It’s not solely optimal use of the runway; it’s not solely infrastructure upgrades.”

Mr D’Aguilar acknowledged that the “intersection” of LPIA’s main runway 14 with its runway 9 was an issue for the commercial airlines at peak times, while the weather could also “throw things out of whack”.

Yet, now armed with a mitigation plan, he added: “I have yet to speak to the airlines. I wanted to first deal with the persons involved in management of aircraft in terms of landing, take-off and parking, and now meet with the airlines. Now I can go to the airlines with a plan to mitigate the issues they experienced because it was not pretty.”