Tuesday, February 9, 2010
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Bahamasair targets axed Jamaica route By Scott Armstrong ~ Guardian Business Editor ~ scott@nasguard.com:
As one airline prepares to pull the plug on flights to Jamaica, the national airline of The Bahamas looks set to fill the gap, The Nassau Guardian can reveal.
Air Jamaica announced it is to discontinue its services to The Bahamas as the company culls routes across the Caribbean.
Effective April 12, 2010, Air Jamaica will suspend service completely to Nassau, and in the run up to that the service will be reduced to two weekly flights after March 14.
However Bahamasair is now looking to take over the route and is focussing a lot of energy on making that happen. Managing Director of Bahamasair Henry Woods said: "We are aggressively looking to take over that route, our commercial unit is now examining the aspects of that, such as determining the frequency and the type of equipment we need to make that happen. "I am more than certain that we will move quickly to service that route, we were looking at it before and were thinking about doing it even when Air Jamaica was there, but now it makes even more sense. "To start with we'd be looking at servicing the route with one of our Dash 8 turbo prop rather than a jet, but if the numbers justify it we would move up to a jet. "We'd most likely be looking at least at a service twice a week, maybe three times a week. We are very focussed on this and we will be moving very swiftly." The airline he said was committed to increasing its own international services from six to eight. Currently Bahamasair flies to Miami, Palm Beach, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Providenciales and Havana. As well as Jamaica, Woods said the airline was looking again at Haiti and was determining which would be the best location to connect to, the earthquake-hit city of Port-au-Prince or Cape Haitian. Meanwhile talks continue about a key restructure of the air fleet of Bahamasair, which could unlock new routes and expanded services. Last month The Nassau Guardian revealed that a dialogue has begun between staff, management and the board of the national airline of The Bahamas, and the government on what should happen next with Bahamasair's fleet. Currently is runs five 50-seat Dash 8 turbo props and two 120-seat Boeing 737-200s, though all are some years old now. It is understood that the fleet talks have become the primary focus for Bahamasair as they are key to its ability to improve airlift. As previously reported the airline has a real desire to contribute to the tourism push to serve the Family Islands better. On the table for discussion is what is the optimum number for the fleet, and whether extra aircraft are needed, as well as the possibility of replacing existing stock. Once this matter has been resolved, Bahamasair can then begin looking at increasing frequency of flights on existing services plus expanding into more routes.
Tuesday February 09, 2010 |
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