By ANNELIA NIXON

Tribune Business Reporter

anixon@tribunemedia.net

Rival airlines yesterday said they have already increased flights to The Bahamas in a bid to fill the void created by Silver Airways demise.

Describing her approach as “guerrilla marketing,” Sarah Swainson, Makers Air’s private charters and business development manager, said she she is making it known that the carrier is available, adding that Silver Airways’ displaced passengers have been offered a 15 percent discount on their base airfare until June 30.

“We actually did a special promotion today [yesterday],” Ms Swainson said. “So anybody that’s been displaced off of Silver, we are giving a 15 percent ‘off the base fare’ until June 30 to try to stimulate some of those re-bookings, as well as 15 percent off their private charters to Georgetown and Marsh Harbour.

“So we’re hoping that it gives people peace of mind. It’s like the plot twist, and not a good one, but let’s be a travel solution for people that are wanting to keep their summer travel plans intact and on schedule. So that’s kind of our main effort right now. And just making sure that people know that we’re here, we’re ready, we’re flying, and we can get you where you want to be.

“We’ve been getting a lot of those because there have been a lot of cancellations with Silver, and also American [Airlines] lately, which is a little more unusual. They’ve been cancelling more regularly. And so in advance of this, we’ve been getting a lot of calls for people that have been stranded with either not a way home or not a way out,” she added.

“But this is next level. I think it’s going to really escalate. I’m just hoping that it doesn’t result in Out Island cancellations. I don’t want people to get frustrated. Our scheduled flights, and as far as Silver’s routes go, would be the destinations in Eleuthera and then our charters. Our charters would cover the Marsh Harbour, Georgetown situations.

“We’re just doing the best we can. Like I said, the cancellations have been increasing. As far as today, we have added a couple of private charters today, and we have ensured that there is ample flight availability to those scheduled flight destinations in Eleuthera so that there’s ease of passenger booking.”

Patricia Summerfield, Tropic Ocean Airways’ director of sales and partnerships, said the airline will begin a scheduled group of flights between Fort Lauderdale and North Eleuthera, starting on June 20. However, additional flights to Bimini will begin today.

“As of right now, we’re offering private charters on demand,” Ms Summerfield said. “We have availability for private charters and shared charters. So if people want to get together and split the cost of the charter, if they need their own private charter for a family, we have both of that available currently.

“And then we also have our flight from Marsh Harbour, so possibly increasing the frequency on our flights to Marsh Harbour as well. We fly there three days a week, between Fort Lauderdale and Marsh Harbour. And we’re also going to add additional Bimini scheduled service flights. So currently we fly to Bimini seven days a week, between four and six times a day. We’re going to add extra capacity to that.”

Noting that their phones and e-mails have been going off constantly, Ms Swainson, Stuart Hanley, founder and chief executive of Aztec Airways, and Anthony Marinello, president of Tropic Air Charters, said their airlines are also prepared to fill then gap. Mr Marinello said yesterday morning that he anticipated that have already allocated three extra flights.

Aztec Airways, which normally runs about 10 to 12 flights a day, has scheduled flights into Bimini, Treasure Cay, Marsh Harbour, Governor’s Harbour and Rock Sound.

“We go to Great Harbour Cay and Chub Cay in the Berry Islands, and we go to San Andros and Fresh Creek in Andros,” Mr Hanley added. “Silver has left a void, so we’re filling that void. Mostly the routes we share [with Silver Airways] were to Abaco, Bimini and Eleuthera. Those are the routes that they flew, that we fly. So we’ll be adding more flights to those destinations.

“Our schedule is in place now through June of next year. It’s all very new to us right now, what is happening. It’s only been a few hours since the announcement. So we’re looking to see where people want to travel, and when they do, we’ll add flights. We’re very flexible.”