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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 2020
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TOMMY TURNQUEST
Bahamasair to ‘take advantage of crisis’ through Mexican route By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMASAIR is aiming to “take advantage of the COVID-19 crisis” to open up more Latin American tourism markets via development of a Mexico City route, its chairman revealed yesterday. Tommy Turnquest told Tribune Business the national flag carrier’s recent leasing of a second Boeing 737-700 jet had given it the fleet capability to start reexamining a potential route that the Ministry of Tourism first asked it to explore some 18 months ago prior to the pandemic. “We’re trying to do as much as we can to take advantage of the crises and find some opportunities,” he said of the cash-strapped airline. “One of the things we’re excited about is that the Ministry of Tourism, through research of the Immigration cards - they mine data from those cards - believes there is a very profitable market coming out of Latin America through Mexico City. “We couldn’t go to Mexico City because of the high altitude with the 727-500s we had. When we got the 737-700 aircraft we could make the trek nonstop. The challenge, though, was to begin to explore that market with just one aircraft. If we had maintenance issues, had problems, there was no redundancy, no back-up. “Now we have the second 737-700, we’re able to look at long haul markets like that which we’re going to open up working with the Ministry of Tourism. They had spoken to us about that [Mexico City] 18 months ago, but we couldn’t serve that with the aircraft we had. Now we have the aircraft we’re looking at that again.” Mr Turnquest said Bahamasair was also exploring other US markets that could be opened up as tourism gateways to The Bahamas. “The legacy carriers go into Dallas, Houston, the greater New York area, Charlotte and so on,” he added. “We have to justify our existence, and some of these opportunities are why we still exist. “We can go into Nashville, Tennessee; Cleveland, Ohio, and open up new markets. We’re quite excited in terms of looking at that as the tourism industry begins to rebound, and we hope to be part of that. We’ve been looking at opportunities, and sharpening our pencil in terms of costs and structure. We’ve been bleeding money over the months.” Many observers would argue that Bahamasair was “bleeding money” throughout its history, and long before COVID-19 arrived, although the pandemic has worsened its challenges with the airline earning zero revenue to cover monthly costs of around $7m in several months since March 2020. However, while its detractors will question why Bahamasair is seeking to expand given the losses inflicted annually on taxpayers, Mr Turnquest yesterday pointed out that
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Retailers to hit ‘point of no return’ this week By YOURI KEMP Tribune Business Reporter ykemp@tribunemedia.net
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HE Bahamas Federation of Retailers (BFR) yesterday revealed multiple members will reach “the point of no return” and close permanently as early as this week unless curb-side restrictions are lifted. Tara Morley, its copresident, told Tribune Business that the inability to generate sufficient cash flow to purchase and clear Christmas inventory, due to the government’s present COVID-19 measures, had pushed many merchants to the brink of closure with the festive season less than two months away. Adding that retailers ranging from “long-standing businesses to entrepreneurial startups” had contacted the Federation in the past few days to warn they will cease
• Federation chief: Members warning of final closures • At the brink unless curb-side limits ease immediately • ‘Who wants to be terminating people going into Xmas?’
operations unless the government removes curb-side limitations this week, Ms Morley warned the situation threatened to create “an unfortunate amount of joblessness” headed into the Christmas period. Festive sales often account for up to 40-50 percent of a retailer’s annual business volumes, generating the cash flow and profits that help to carry them through the remainder of the year, but COVID19 lockdowns, curfews and restrictions - coupled with depressed consumer spending - mean many will struggle to enjoy their traditional Christmas boost. “As of today and yesterday, I have had several businesses write in from the Federation that said that
unless an announcement is made this week with regard to the curb-side restriction, they will have to shutter their doors permanently. That means I have to furlough my staff and jobs are gone,” Ms Morley told this newspaper. “One week will do that. It pushes them to a point of no return with missing the holiday season entirely, because no one is expecting it to be last year’s holiday season or the December before that. But it would have been a buffer for cash flow, to assist with the catch-up of being closed for five out of eight months that we have all been shut down. “They simply cannot afford to hold on any longer, and with what little
they have in their bank accounts they will have to use that to make their staff redundant and close down the business and cease operations. These are everything from long-standing businesses to entrepreneurial start-ups. I have received from both messages just like that, which are obviously heart-breaking and not anything anybody wants to be doing,” she added. “Leading into the holiday season, who wants to be terminating people? Unless the curb-side restrictions are lifted it is going to create an unfortunate amount of joblessness for Bahamians heading for the holidays.” Ms Morley said many
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Marina frustration on narrowed test window By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE Association of Bahamas Marinas (ABM) president has voiced frustration over the government’s failure to approve on-arrival COVID-19 PCR testing for boaters who miss “the fiveday window”. Peter Maury pledged that the association will “keep trying” after the narrowing of the PCR testing window, from seven days before arrival in The Bahamas to five days, threatened to cause complications for its yachting and boating clients. Speaking to Tribune Business in a recent interview, he argued that weather conditions, mechanical problems and other factors could all delay a boat’s scheduled arrival in The Bahamas by several days and place its passengers/crew outside the five-day time period in which they have to produce a negative COVID-19 PCR
• ‘On arrival’ proposal not approved by govt • Sector chief: Five-day COVID test too tight • Says maritime sector ‘not like taking plane’ test in compliance with this nation’s border protocols. Rather than such visitors be turned away, and forced to return to the US or other port of entry to go through the test all over again, Mr Maury said he had proposed that boaters in such a predicament - especially those who had come to New Providence - quarantine on board and take the PCR test via Doctors Hospital, which can turnaround the results within 24 hours. The ABM chief, though, said that while the government had acknowledged such a solution “makes sense”, it had yet to be approved by the Ministry of Health and included as part of the COVID-19 health and safety protocols in the emergency orders.
“The only thing we’d asked due consideration for is the seven-day window. We need seven days,” Mr Maury told this newspaper. “A boat coming from the Caribbean or the Atlantic doesn’t travel like a plane. It takes them seven days to get where they’re going. “We also had boats coming this week who were delayed because of the weather, and they’re going to have to get re-tested. A boat, when it comes in, is essentially a capsule where people can’t go on and they can’t go anywhere. I’d asked if they could be tested on arrival. “The government said it made sense, but we have guys that are total bureaucrats. They say: ‘This is what the Health Travel Visa says;
the test is done prior to arrival’. Yeah, I understand that, but if you get tested when you arrive what is better than having an immediate test?” he continued. “The Ministry of Health never approved it, and never included it in the order. If you think about it, it makes more sense to do it this way as you have a more accurate result. Yachting is just different. It doesn’t fly at 180 miles per hour; it goes at 10 knots. “It’s 240 nautical miles from here [New Providence] to the US at ten knots. That’s 24 hours. A big yacht is not going very fast. Those guys are not coming on speed boats. Bad weather for two days, two days to
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$3.95 Bahamasair to ‘crank up’ local services with quarantine end By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMASAIR’S chairman yesterday voiced hope it will be able to “crank up” domestic services that are less than one-third of their preCOVID schedule with the 14-day quarantine’s immediate end.’ Tommy Turnquest, speaking after the government altered its Emergency Powers Orders to eliminate the quarantine on inter-island travel from New Providence with effect from November 8, said the move had yet to produce an increase in the national flag carrier’s advance bookings. The change, which is designed to bring COVID-19 travel protocols for citizens and residents in line with those for tourists, comes as Bahamasair seeks to slow the multi-million dollar losses inflicted by shutdowns and other restrictions imposed by the government. “Hopefully that’s going to increase demand,” Mr Turnquest said of the November 8 quarantine end. “We haven’t seen it in advance bookings yet. If I was to travel I wouldn’t go anywhere where I have to quarantine. “We’ve reduced our domestic flights down to 26 per week. It was around 80 something per week, but that included some international services. It was previously two times’ what it is now. For example, we’re down to operating four days a week. We don’t operate on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday right now. “When we used to go to the south-east Bahamas two times’ a week, Inagua three times’ a week, we’re only going once a week. In the case of Freeport and Abaco, where we would go every day, we’re only doing it three or four times a week, so there’s a big difference. We have the supply, it’s just a matter of the demand matching. As soon as it comes back, we’re ready to crank up.” Mr Turnquest confirmed that Bahamasair was behind on its rental payments to three south Florida airports Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. He added, though, that payment plans were being made with the national flag carrier’s landlord.
Arrival COVID test would have ‘cost us competitive advantage’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net RESORTS on some Family Islands had feared “losing a competitive advantage” had the COVID-19 “upon arrival” test remained in place, a senior Ministry of Tourism official revealed yesterday. Kerry Fountain, the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board’s (BOIPB) executive director, told Tribune Business that hotel properties on islands such as Andros, Cat Island and Long Island feared they would lose direct airlift as they had no ports of entry designated as locations for this testing. As a result, these resorts and associated business were “not dissatisfied” when Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, unveiled the last-minute change in government policy that abandoned the COVID-19 testing upon arrival for all tourists. Mr Fountain said the concerns related to implementation, and the exclusion of their islands as ports of entry, rather than opposition to the principle of rapid antigen testing at the border.
• Family Island resorts feared direct airlift loss • Many islands excluded as antigen test sites • Hotels urged not to do 5-day test themselves He added, though, that his members still have “small, niggling, mosquito-type questions” over where the five-day tests will be administered to their guests and who will administer them. “A lot of the hotels were reporting, not that they disagreed with testing on arrival, but that the initial plans called for certain islands and locations to be designated as COVID-19 ports of entry,” Mr Fountain told this newspaper. “It excluded airports such as Congo Town, which has direct service from Florida. It excluded New Bight, which has direct service from Florida, and it excluded Long Island. It impacted not just commercial carriers flying to those airports, but charter aircraft and private planes that fly in directly from Florida to those islands. “In this day and age, charters and private pilots having access to fly into The Bahamas and any island
is a competitive advantage. When you eliminate a number of ports of entry [from the testing], there went your competitive advantage,” he continued. “When we announced we were doing away with the rapid antigen testing upon arrival, a lot of hotels on the Family Islands were not dissatisfied with that decision.” Had the border COVID-19 testing remained in place, using a limited number of airports, marinas and sea ports, the aviation industry would have been forced to divert to these locations and away from some Family Islands. With the entire resort industry industry agreeing the previous 14-day mandatory quarantine was a “non-starter” when it came to reviving The Bahamas’ tourism industry, Mr Fountain said sector questions still remain over the COVID-19 health and safety protocols especially as it relates to the testing system.
“The rapid antigen test remains in place for visitors staying for more than five days,” he added. “I think the hotels can all live with that, but what is uncertain right now is where they go to get a five-day test and who will administer that five-day test. “Once we sort that out we will be OK. These are some small, niggling, mosquito-type questions. The two major questions from Family Island hotels in terms of frequency are where do you go for the five-day test and who administers it?” Mr D’Aguilar said the government was trying to arrange that testing, and related administration, be carried out by licensed medical practitioners on the Family Islands. Mr Fountain, meanwhile, said he was attempting to dissuade Promotion Board members from carrying out the five-day COVID tests themselves for fear this would expose them to potential legal risks.
“Some hotels, to my surprise, are willing to administer the tests on property and have someone trained to do it,” he revealed to this newspaper. “We get 82-85 percent of our visitors from the US, which is sort of a litigious country, so we have to be very careful about hotel staff administering the test when I feel, quite frankly, it should be done by someone properly trained.” Mr Fountain said the COVID-19 testing and risk mitigation system unveiled by the government at the weekend was something the hotel and tourism industry “can live with”, as he voiced optimism that the “trickle” of visitors will start to pick up following yesterday’s US presidential election. “I know they’re getting a trickle of business as of November 1,” he added of the Promotion Board’s member hotels. “It’s a drip drip. I think as we communicate with the travelling public out there that we are open for business, and dot the ‘i’s’ and cross the ‘t’s’ for our travel plans and protocols, I think you’re going to
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