By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Government’s aviation chief yesterday promised long-suffering Mangrove Cay residents they will enjoy an improved airport “by the end of 2027” amid complaints they and visiting tourists have been “forced to go back in time” over airlift connectivity woes.

Dr Kenneth Romer, director of aviation and also the Ministry of Tourism’s deputy director-general, told attendees at the Andros Business Outlook conference that much-needed upgrades will soon forthcoming after he was repeatedly pressed on the issue by Elizabeth Bain, principal of the Mangrove Cay Club.

“For the airport in Mangrove Cay, give me a date,” Ms Bain asked. “Soon” was the initial reply but, not satisfied, the resort owner and operator persisted by retorting: “I’ve been hearing that for a very long time.” This drew a more fulsome response from Dr Romer, who said the improvements would be based on the upgrades made to Great Harbour Cay’s airport in the Berry Islands.

“I’ve been hearing about airports for a very long time; since 2022,” the aviation director said, seemingly referring to the Government’s Family Island ‘renaissance’ programme that is overhauling and upgrading multiple airports via public-private partnerships (PPPs) and other financing/operating arrangements.

“I”ve opened five. We are right now constructing 11,” Dr Romer said of the Davis administration’s progress. “By the end of 2027 you’ll see an airport in Mangrove Cay. Your member of Parliament [Leon Lundy] already spoke to that. Great Harbour Cay model.”

He spoke out after resort and airline operators, as well as Mangrove Cay residents, detailed multiple aviation and transportation-related challenges said to be holding back the area’s economic and social progress as well as deterring foreign direct investment (FDI).

Besides the airport’s “leaky roof”, lack of maintenance and rundown appearance, as well as the presence of stray dogs and crabs leaving a poor first and last impression for tourists as well as Bahamians, other concerns included difficulties in ensuring the presence of Customs and Immigration to clear incoming flights; high airline ticket prices; and poor scheduling connectivity that forces visitors to overnight in Nassau or Florida before they can reach Mangrove Cay the following day.

One Mangrove Cay resident pointed to prohibitive private charter costs, up to $1,400 to $1,500 per person one-way, as well as the struggle for direct flights as “not everybody” wants to take a boat from Driggs Hill.

“Flamingo Air has a tendency to cancel flights well in advance. They don’t give us an opportunity to book those flights,” the female resident complained. “Le-Air combines their flights with Fresh Creek, which makes it difficult to get in. Not everybody wants to fly in through Driggs Hill and come in on a boat. Not everyone can afford to do a private charter from Fort Lauderdale. Not everyone can afford to do a hop over from Nassau to Mangrove Cay.

“The cost of a private charter one-way is $1,400 to $1,500 whether it’s five passengers or just one. It makes it extremely difficult, not just for visitors but Mangrovians who live here, because it’s difficult to go back and forth. We are almost now being forced to go back in time and travel by boat [from and to Nassau]. Seven hours in a boat when it takes 15 minutes, not to mention that the air price does not match the service.

“They are charging large airline fees and prices, and it does not match. There are delays and cancellations with no explanation, no cancellation. There’s a lot happening there.” Ms Bain, meanwhile, said Mangrove Cay Club has had to develop a “work around” the airlift connectivity difficulties by flying guests into Driggs Hill and then transporting them by boat to the resort’s marina.

Revealing that the resort has had to “build a bubble” around it to insulate itself from the area’s utility challenges, Ms Bain added that it has challenges in “simply explaining to a potential guest how to get here, telling them you have Le-Air one week, Flamingo Air the next, and you may have to come in with one, go out with the other, and so on and so forth”.

“There’s been a lot of talk about creating the demand. There’s been a lot of talk about what the entrepreneurs and hoteliers need to do to create that demand. Mangrove Cay Club has been in business for 26 years. We have created a solid business,” Ms Bain said.

“We are still facing challenges with our airport, with our airlift, getting people from Nassau to Mangrove Cay, getting people from Fort Lauderdale to Mangrove Cay. I was diving into some metrics in the last couple of days, and calculated how many arrivals and departures we had last season. It was 110 groups x 2. Two hundred and twenty arrivals and departures.

“A significant number of those were Makers Air, and because we do not have Customs here in Mangrove Cay we have had to develop a work around,” Ms Bain explained. “We transport those people from Driggs Hill to Mangrove Cay by boat. It’s like I say: We have built a bubble around ourselves. We have invested in back-up generation, our own water system. We created our own drinking water.

“We have had to do so to just compensate for the lack of reliable infrastructure here in Mangrove Cay. That requires a considerable amount of investment, and anyone who develops a business plan that does not factor that in is going to be overlooking a considerable portion of their required investment.”

They were far from alone in her concerns. Dr Romer had earlier asserted that the island of Andros, as a whole, “is leading the way in terms of year-over-year growth in foreign air arrivals; Andros is on the leader board” with “64 percent growth” compared to pre-COVID figures in 2019.

However, Bryan Baeumler, co-owner of south Andros’ Caerula Mar Club Resort, and who has been featured extensively in the long-running HGTV series on his Bahamian investment, cited the lack of same-day airlift connectivity for inbound and departing guests as a major barrier for his business.

“Access and awareness is a big one,” he told the Business Outlook conference. “Airlift, it’s not only the amount of airlift, it’s the time. We lose a significant portion of our travellers and tourists because flying from the northern US or Canada into Nassau, you need to stay overnight to catch a connection into Andros. Those same people flying into Fort Lauderdale need to stay overnight to catch a connection into Andros, whether it’s Makers Air or Western Air, which the majority of our travellers go on.

“Timing is a big one. We lose a significant portion when we give up barriers to access by having to stay somewhere.” Mr Baeumler also described fixing the Mangrove Cay airport as the number one priority, pointing to the presence of uncollected garbage and leaky roofs.

Meanwhile, Sarah Swainson, director of business development for Makers Air, told the same panel discussion that “the number one thing we need is Customs. Customs and Immigration” and a regular presence in Mangrove Cay and south Andros to clear and process incoming flights.

While Customs officers do an “amazing” job currently, she explained: “The issue comes in that there is a cost that is involved in that. That is not even the biggest prohibitive measure. It’s that if they are short-staffed, they cannot leave San Andros airport.

“That means if there is a scheduled flight coming, we would not be able to fly the scheduled flight or a private charter for that matter, which we’d have to clear somewhere else and which we’ve worked around. We have the ability to work within this very dynamic community of Mangrove Cay and lodge operators to add scheduled flights as soon as the Customs and Immigration issue is solved.”

And, calling for “quick processing”, Ms Swainson added: “If our planes are not in the air we are not making money. The quicker we can be out and processed is important. I cannot stress enough that if we are delayed in Customs by an hour-and-a-half then the rest of the day is thrown off.”