By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

Bahamasair and its pilots have agreed to raise the latter’s retirement age to 65 to alleviate any fears of labour shortages as part of Friday’s $500,000 industrial agreement.

Tracy Cooper, the national flag carrier’s managing director, said the deal - which will benefit 16 pilots - is valued at $500,000 and will provide a 10 percent pay increase spread over its five years.

He added that the previous contract expired in December 2022, and negotiations for a new agreement were conducted over a “good portion” of 2023. “Overall, the contract has a duration of five years, and the dollar value is a little over $500,000. It is 10 percent spread over the five years,” Mr Cooper said.

“It isn’t the fact that this is a brand new contract; it is a just an updated contract.. It is just an updating of the contract that we would have had prior that pretty much has all of the benefits.”

Mark Johnson, the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association’s (BALPA) president, confirmed the new industrial agreement increases the retirement age for pilots from 60 to 65. He said the move was in the “best interest” of both the pilots and the airline.

“Bahamasair’s management team and BALPA were able to sit down and decide what works best for the company and this organisation and, ultimately, we decided that it would be in both parties’ best interest to increase the retirement age to age 65,” Mr Johnson added.

Tanya Pratt, Bahamasair’s chairman, said that due to the retirement age increase some pilots who recently retired at 60 years-old will be reengaged on a contractual basis. She explained that once the contract has been approved by legal advisors for both the union and Bahamasair, both sides will decide on a date to begin the contracts.

She said: “One of the other things that we were able to agree on is we have some pilots that have recently retired, and we’ve come to the agreement to re-engage some of those pilots on a contractual basis.

“We are still working through it with both legal counsel from the pilot side and from management, Bahamasair. So we have not completed the contract as yet. Once we will have come up with an agreement, then we will decide on the date when they will be reengaged.”

Tribune Business revealed last year how Bahamasair was seeking to raise its pilot retirement age to 65 amid fears it faced an imminent shortage of experienced captains with eight passing through the ‘departure gate’ since 2022.

The national flag carrier wanted 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 was inextricably bound-up with industrial agreement negotiations with the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association. 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, was also coinciding with the expansion of the airline’s fleets and routes.

Another Boeing 737 jet joined before 2023 year-end, and a 72-seat ATR turbo prop is 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.

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.”