NASSAU, Bahamas — Freeport will not attract “new money” and a Grand Lucayan buyer until its airport costs “fall in line”, warns a Bahamian airline chief who stopped flying to the city two months ago.
Captain Randy Butler, Sky Bahamas’ chief executive, told Tribune Business that the carrier had downsized its Freeport operations to a call centre and office presence as it bids to work out a deal with Grand Bahama Airport Company’s (GBAC) owners to facilitate its return.
He revealed that Sky Bahamas suspended flights two months ago because it had simply become too expensive to operate flights into Freeport, due to a combination of cost and what he described as the advantages enjoyed by rivals such as Western Air and Bahamasair.
But Captain Butler’s account was refuted by Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, who told this newspaper that GBAC’s costs “are in no way different” from the charges imposed on airlines by the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) and other regional rivals.
While “everybody always beat up on the airports”, the minister argued that the airlines were just as responsible – if not more so – for the high costs on certain Bahamas routes that have been blamed for deterring tourists and investment. http://www.tribune242.com/news/2018/oct/22/gb-airport-must-fall-in-line-for-sky-return/
