By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

An Abaco yacht and charter company’s proprietor yesterday demanded accountability and Bahamasair’s privatisation after the airline’s plane shortage caused travel delays for frustrated visitors.

Michael Dillon, head of Abaco Yacht and Charter Services, told Tribune Business he is having to reimburse customers because Bahamasair is “doing nothing” after losing one-third of its nine-string fleet from service for more than a week (see other article on Page 1B).

“Well, what’s happening is because of the issues with the planes, my guests that have flights booked through Palm Beach are having to reroute or they’re getting in a day late,” Mr Dillon said. “It’s caused a lot of problems.

“Well, you paid for a charter that starts on Monday, you don’t get here on Tuesday, what does that mean? That means you got here a day late on your charter, and you just lost all that value. I mean, you paid for a day on a charter and now, because your flight didn’t get in, you lost that whole day and your charter is still the same period.

“So you bought a seven-day charter where your charter starts on Monday and it ends on next Monday. Well, you don’t get here until Tuesday. Your charter still ends next Monday. So now you have a six-day charter instead of a seven-day charter.

“So the impact is actually costing people that are chartering with us a lot of money because they’re losing $2,000. It’s about $2,000 a day to get a charter or boat. They’re losing that money. It’s very frustrating,” Mr Dillon added.

“We’re helping them out, and guess what? Bahamasair isn’t doing s**t. And I’m giving customers money back, like a couple bucks back, to just try to ease them up because Bahamasair’s doing nothing. So I’m actually giving some refunds to my customers to help them out because Bahamasair is screwing them.”

Mr Dillon said governments should not be in business as most of the time such entities tend to lack accountability and quality service and products. “Anything that any government owns is terrible. United States, UK, Bahamas, it don’t matter. If the Government owns a business, it’s going to fall apart. It’s going to be junk just like Bahamasair is. If you got time to spare, fly Bahamasair, baby,” he said.

“There’s no accountability in the Government. So why does everything keep breaking? Because there’s no accountability. Because if something breaks, they don’t fire the person that broke it. Just like Bahamasair. You don’t fire the persons that break the system. What do you do? You promote them, you give more money and then the problems get bigger and more expensive. That’s what’s happening with Bahamasair.”

Mr Dillon added that if Bahamasair is privatised, there will be more accountability, noting that privatisation would help the company run more “efficiently”.

“Bahamasair should be privatised, period,” he said. “Let a private company run it. You want to know why? Because as soon as they fail, they go out of business and somebody else comes in and fills the void. That’s what happens.

“So you get a private entity running Bahamasair. Now there’s accountability. And if somebody in the company is not doing things right, they get fired. But [if] you’re working for the Government, you can’t get fired.”

Besides complaints about Bahamasair employees at the check-in desk in Palm Beach, Mr Dillon said tourists have told him that if they were to return to Abaco they would “never fly on Bahamasair there again”.

Cindy Pinder, speaking on behalf of Captain Buddy Pinder, a bonefishing guide in Abaco, said she had not heard about the plane shortage and her husband has not seen that customer turnout was declining because it is a slow period.

However, she said they expect to see an influx beginning Saturday as the week leading up to Christmas kicks off their busy season. She added that she will be able to better observe and judge customer turnout next week.

Ms Pinder, in an attempt to prepare for potential flight delays into Abaco, said if customers cannot make their Bahamasair flight she will definitely recommend other airlines as  “there’s a lot of little airlines that come to Abaco”.