By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Bahamasair is seeking to raise its pilot retirement age to 65 amid fears it faces an imminent shortage of experienced captains with eight passing through the ‘departure gate’ since 2022.

The national flag carrier now wants to lift its long-standing mandatory pilot retirement age of 60 by five years so that it can return this expertise and ensure a smoother succession, with a further three captains set to hit that threshold and leave the airline during the 2024 first half.

However, increasing the retirement age is inextricably bound-up with industrial agreement negotiations with the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association, which have yet to be concluded. The loss of up to 11 captains, which sources said amounts to the departure of around 30 percent of Bahamasair’s most experienced pilots in two-and-half years, is also coinciding with the expansion of the airline’s fleets and routes.

Another Boeing 737 jet is scheduled to join before 2023 year-end, and a 72-seat ATR turbo prop set to be added in time for summer 2024. Bahamasair also recently unveiled the launch of service between Exuma and Fort Lauderdale, and is expected to add new winter flights from the US east cost to Grand Bahama, which will create increased manpower demands just as multiple leading pilots retire.

Tribune Business sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the timing of these retirements - coinciding with planned fleet and route expansions - raised concerns that remaining Bahamasair pilots will have to spend ever-increasing hours in the air, which could lead to fatigue and burn-out.

Tracy Cooper, Bahamasair’s managing director, did not respond to multiple Tribune Business phone calls and messages seeking comment before press time. However, Mark Johnson, the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association’s president, downplayed the fatigue and burn-out issue, saying: “Pilot fatigue is extensively monitored. I don’t see that as a concern.”

Speaking to this newspaper from Miami, where he was involved in pilot training exercises, the union chief confirmed that Bahamasair is seeking to raise its mandatory pilot retirement age from 60 to 65 and that this must be done through negotiations with the union on a new industrial contract.

Mr Johnson, adding that Bahamasair pilots have been retiring at 60 for the past 50 years, added that “I don’t know where this stuff is coming from”. However, while telling this newspaper that it needed to speak to Bahamasair management, he indicated that the carrier could have done a better job of recruitment and succession planning knowing multiple retirements were looming at the same time.

Raising the retirement age to 65 would bring Bahamasair in line with national aviation laws enacted in June 2021 and international standards, with the global pilot shortage recently prompting US lawmakers to increase it from 65 to 67 in their nation.

Mr Johnson, though, said the Association and Bahamasair need to “sit down and have meaningful negotiations” over the issue. “The Association and Bahamasair are in conversation as it relates to age change,” he confirmed. “This company has expressed to us it would like to have the retirement age changed but it has to be done within contract negotiations. They’re ongoing as we speak.

“Whatever happens with the retirement age happens within the contract negotiations. I can’t say what the retirement age will be, but it will definitely happen in the contract negotiations.” While Bahamasair is pushing for 65, sources suggested that a possible compromise would be to raise the retirement age to either 62 or 63 years-old, with the Association’s members said to be split on the issue.

Raising it to 62-63 would give Bahamasair more time for succession planning, and Mr Johnson signalled that the carrier should have been better prepared knowing multiple retirements were set to occur at once. “Definitely, as it relates to planning changes, they do not come to the company one day and retire tomorrow,” he added.

“When it comes to retirement planning and the amount of years for retiring, you have to talk to Bahamasair management about that. All I can say is that this didn’t happen overnight.... The Association and company are in conversation on the contract as a whole, and the retirement age is included.”

The two sides’ existing contract expired at year-end 2022, but several sources yesterday suggested the negotiations were “dragging” and moving “at a snail’s pace” with the two sides only holding their first meeting in April. Asked when the talks would be completed, and an agreement reached, Mr Johnson replied: “The completion is up to management. These things sometimes take a while.”

Captain Gail Saunders, one of the eight pilots affected by the 60 year-old retirement age, hinted to Tribune Business yesterday that she would be willing to return to work if this was raised but it depends on the outcome of the Association’s talks.

“As far as I know the union is supposed to be in negotiations with Bahamasair,” she said. “I don’t know what the outcome is. I think they’re finalising the negotiations so I can’t say anything.” One source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that out of 32 captains - 12 working the jets, 20 on the ATRs - some eight have retired since 2022. That figure will hit 11 by June 2024 with three more departures due.

“Are they they going to keep these captains out, or move the age to 65 and allow expert knowledge to be around while giving up-and-coming pilots more time to be schooled so they don’t have so many new captains and officers flying side by side?” they added.

“The question is: What are they doing? The pilots who have retired, the company has not paid them out, as they are hoping something happens by moving the retirement age to 65.”

In a note sent to Tribune Business, they added: “From 2022, and up to the time of this writing, the national flag carrier would have lost an estimated 30 percent of its more experienced senior captains due to retirement, some with up to 39 years of experience.

“By June 2024, three more senior captains will be listed as retired. As these aviators leave, they take not just a substantial part of the labour force with them, but also decades of expertise and experience.... The airline was quite aware that a large majority of its senior pilots were baby boomers approaching retirement age. However, they did nothing to [prevent] the mass exodus of these senior pilots.

“There was no succession planning as to the way forward for the airline and as a result, Bahamasair continues to experience an exodus of senior pilots along with their expertise. This is cause for concern.”