Bahamasair CEO Tracy Cooper discusses how the airline is navigating increasing tourism demand, fleet modernization and the ever-growing need for regional air connectivity. Recorded live at Routes Americas 2025.
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Transcript
David Casey:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Window Seat, our Aviation Week air transport podcast. My name is David Casey, editor-in-chief of Routes. Welcome aboard. Today we’re recording live from Routes Americas, which is taking place in Nassau and Paradise Island in The Bahamas. And I'm delighted to be joined by Bahamasair CEO, Tracy Cooper. Tracy, thanks for being with us today on Window Seat.
Tracy Cooper:
Yeah, good day, David. It's a delight to be here.
David Casey:
Well, for any of our listeners who might be unfamiliar with Bahamasair, perhaps you could just start off by giving us a little bit of flavor about your operations, about your network, and about your strategy.
Tracy Cooper:
Yeah, so Bahamasair started in 1973 with the independence of The Bahamas, and the government at that time felt it necessary to have an airline that would've been reliable, providing transportation in and around our island nation and to also help in the starting of the tourism product for the country.
David Casey:
Okay. And in terms of your current operations, perhaps you could just talk us through the fleet and how you structure your network.
Tracy Cooper:
Sure. So we pretty much carry two missions. One is the transportation around the islands, which we do with the ATR aircraft. As of last week, we have now six of those airplanes, and we also have four [Boeing] 737 NGs, 700 series, that we fly mostly internationally. We fly to 13 destinations within The Bahamas, and we fly to four destinations in the US, which is Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, West Palm Beach. We also fly to four other destinations within the Caribbean: Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, as well as Providenciales.
David Casey:
Okay. And in terms of that fleet you mentioned, you've just taken another ATR and that serves your domestic network and then you have the 737-700s for the international network. Can you just talk us through what are the longer term development plans for that fleet? Because obviously in terms of the 737s, I think they're about 20 years old, so it is an aging fleet. Have you got an aircraft in mind that might replace those in the near term?
Tracy Cooper:
So ,the ATRs, they're not too old. These airplanes that we would've acquired brand new in 2016, 2017, so they're somewhere around eight years old. Related to the 737s, these are the NG models. We are looking to see how we can replace them at some point in the near future. And the airplane that we're primarily looking at is the Airbus A220. We think that is the right size. Obviously, we know about the engine issues that the airplane have, but Pratt & Whitney is working through those. If we were to acquire some brand-new airplanes, hopefully those issues will not be in the airplanes we acquire.
The versatility on the A220-300 series is that it has 160 seats in an all economy, and we could get 140 out of it if we put it in two-class, and it has the ability to do either close-range or far-range flights, so it'll allow us to have penetration into other markets that Bahamasair presently does not operate. When we do look to make that transition, we will also increase the size of the fleet from four airplanes to possibly eight, and that will give us a great amount of flexibility as to being able to do a lot more expansion than what we are doing presently.
David Casey:
And what's the timeline for this? Have you got a date in mind when you are looking to take these A220s?
Tracy Cooper:
Unfortunately not, because these ongoing conversations, we have to find the capitalization to make it work, and so that is probably the driving factor at this point. Obviously we have got to work in conjunction with the government, seeing that this is a government ally, to see how we could bring that to fruition, but for the time being, it is just aggressive conversations and not fully fine details.
David Casey:
Have you got markets in mind though that you can see Bahamasair expanding into once you get some A220s into your fleet? You talked about it would unlock new opportunities, it would allow you to fly longer range. What are the target markets that you see yourself expanding into?
Tracy Cooper:
Well, the East Coast of the United States is a big, big market for The Bahamas. We garnish probably about 80% of our product from the US, and the East Coast continue to be the key factor. The thing about the A220 though is that it can fly the full continental US from The Bahamas. And so anywhere within the United States we could open up, and it being only 140 to 160 seats, these would be in routes that we can still take advantage of and possibly make a return on investment. But definitely the East Coast, the Bostons, the Phillies, and the likes, and then of course Latin America, which it's just an emerging market for air transportation and a market that is not heavily vested in The Bahamas. And between ourselves and our Ministry of Tourism, who is eagerly trying to see how they could cause that market to be coming to The Bahamas, we think that we'll have some traction.
David Casey:
Any particular markets in Latin America you see the biggest opportunity?
Tracy Cooper:
I would say right off the bat, you have Colombia, you have Mexico, you have Panama, so these are the city centers that you can go to that is on the eastern, northeastern, side of Latin America that has a good amount of connectivity throughout Latin America. In other words, Avianca, Aeromexico, Copa Airlines, and the likes all throughout Latin America, and if we have partnerships with them, we can then bring persons from practically all areas of Latin America to The Bahamas.
David Casey:
And do you see that primarily as point-to-point to bring leisure passengers into The Bahamas, or do you see more of an opportunity to connect through Nassau as a hub?
Tracy Cooper:
Yeah, so all of these, Bahamasair only [flies] pretty much point-to-point simply because Nassau is a hub. But like I said, with us being able to interline, we can use some of those as collection centers to put persons onto Bahamasair.
As far as making Nassau as a hub, Nassau has, or LPIA, the airport, is probably one of the best airports in the Caribbean by far. A lot of times it's getting the awards as the best airport in the Caribbean, and it also has a US pre-clearance lounge as far as US Customs and Border Patrol. And so it has the elements to be able to be used as more than what it is today.
The issue obviously is even as you make it a hub, if you want to make it a hub, there's a lot of facilitation for stopover tourists. And so that is a bit of a problem in that we really need to expand on the hotel room inventory in The Bahamas and especially in Nassau, and that will take a lot of capitalization but a bit of time. And so I think both have to grow together to be able to make it work. And so we can't look at it as a tomorrow project, we got to look at it as something that is going to be over the next several years.
David Casey:
But there is investment going into the tourism products here in The Bahamas, isn't there? I know there's a number of developments underway. It's just going to take time for that to come on stream.
Tracy Cooper:
That's the issue. You just can't go throw up a four-story structure overnight, and especially for the tourism product, you want to have these structures on the beach and where persons can enjoy the luxuries of The Bahamas.
Of course, those takes environmental reviews and other things to make it come to fruition, and it takes a while. So, it will take some time to be able to get that—and probably not even Nassau. I mean we have over 700 islands and keys in the Bahama chain, and at least 18 of them have international airports, so you're not even talking about that. You could spread the hubbing of The Bahamas to more than just New Providence and the hotel inventory to more than just New Providence. More than likely you'll have to, because New Providence is only 21 by seven miles.
And so I think that it's going to take some innovative thought process. I think the investors are here. We always see that if you can come up with the ideas, there's always somebody willing to come over the monies. But we'll see. I can't tell you right now how it'll all come together, but we do believe that in the future that this will be something that we all come to enjoy.
David Casey:
Okay. In terms of tourism then here in The Bahamas, last year was a record, more than 11 million tourists actually came into the country. A lot of those were cruise passengers, but airlift obviously played a big part in that as well. Did that translate into a record year for Bahamasair as well? I know you did have some operational issues last year, so perhaps you could just talk us through the 2024 figures and some of those issues that you encountered.
Tracy Cooper:
Right, in 2023 the tourism count was 9.2 million, so you're talking about a 2 million tourist count growth. The only way you could cause that to happen is to have the facility to have the persons, and unfortunately the facility of having the persons is these mega cruise ships, right? They're coming off of the out-of-the-shipyards and coming into active cruising, and a big beneficiary of that was The Bahamas. So the tourism product, and just to give you an example, in 2019 the tourism product was down to 7.2 million, and we're talking in a five-year span to have a 4 million increase. And some of that was stopover, but it didn't grow as fast as the cruise product. So, we benefited somewhat, we did not benefit extensively because most of the growth really was on the cruise ship side.
David Casey:
And in terms of 2025 though, what is the outlook? Is it more positive?
Tracy Cooper:
Oh yeah. I mean, again, you had a 2 million growth, year over year. Even if you just sustain that, the outlook is positive. But we believe because Carnival, for instance, Carnival Cruise Line is going to open up in July, sort of a fun park, right? Royal Caribbean had already opened up CocoCay. And Carnival is matching that, and Disney has opened up a fun park on the island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas. And Carnival investment, for instance, was $500 billion. And in 2025-26, they intend to put another $100 million into it. And their intent, my understanding, is to rotate as many of their cruise ships through that location as possible. So you would see growth because of these parks and facilities.
David Casey:
In terms of then moving people around The Bahamas, obviously your domestic network is served by the ATRs. You mentioned about Pratt & Whitney supply chain issues with the A220s at the start of this conversation, and I know you've been having issues with the ATRs in terms of engine maintenance. Just talk us through how much of an impact that has had on the carrier and whether you're seeing any light at the end of the tunnel in terms of those issues.
Tracy Cooper:
Well, Pratt & Whitney's supply chain issues have impacted the ATR industry immensely, right? When you're told that you go from a typical 60-day turn on a repair to 150 days, so you're going from a two month to a year, half a year, it is very impactful.
So, what we saw was that the rental engine pool dried up and anybody that is wanting to put rental engines out there is now asking a ransom. And what happens is that Bahamasair has two spare engines, and we've gone from just utilizing our spare engines and all of our own engines in our fleet to having to put lease engines on the airplanes.
So apart from not having sufficient engines, we also now have to go ahead and get a premium cost of operation because we now have lease engines rather than using our own product. So, at the end of the day, it is impactful both from the inability to put all of the planes in the sky and then to now operate at a premium cost versus what we did prior.
So, we're looking forward to Pratt & Whitney really clearing this matter up as soon as possible with our understanding that sometime in 2025 they believe they'll have it sorted out, but even when they have it sorted out, they still have this tremendous amount of backlog from all of these engines, from all these different various operators.
So, I can only say that we have our fingers crossed, our feet crossed, everything crossed, wishing Pratt & Whitney well, because of the impact that is having on us as an operation.
David Casey:
Have you still got aircraft on the ground now?
Tracy Cooper:
Yes. Well, presently right now we have two airplanes on the ground.
David Casey:
And that's from a fleet of five?
Tracy Cooper:
From a fleet of six.
David Casey:
Obviously, if you're a large operator, two or three aircraft out of service isn't that big of a deal, but for a smaller operator, it's a significant chunk of your capacity.
Tracy Cooper:
Yeah. What we would say with the larger operators is that they just have more airplanes on the ground, but I think overall, Pratt & Whitney is a manufacturer that tend to know what it's doing, and they should hopefully get this matter resolved. Pratt & Whitney, get the matter resolved quickly as you can.
David Casey:
Well, there's a message for Pratt & Whitney, if they're listening.
Just to wrap up then, I just want to get a sense of where you see Bahamasair heading in the next, let's say, five years’ time. Obviously you mentioned about the potential for A220s to come into the fleet. You mentioned about maybe expanding into new markets, into Latin America. What's the key focus? What's the key ambition, and what will the carrier look like by the end of the decade?
Tracy Cooper:
Can I simply put expansion as the number one emphasis? But secondly, using the technology of the day to cause the airline to be more efficient. Every place you go today, there are kiosks are being used, so persons could self-service, and airlines have started to embrace it. We recognize that we're going to have to do that as well. Our labor costs is our number one expense, and to be able to use the technology to help facilitate that will go a long way.
The one thing about kiosks is that they don't tend to call in sick. They don't tend to need the overtime, and they don't tend to get tired either, for all intents and purposes. And they don't tend to really carry the burdens of what may be at home and bring to work. Work is where they are. And so, we recognize the benefits of using self-servicing machines as far as checking in and persons taking care of themselves.
And today, it is the norm. Almost everything has a kiosk. Almost every industry has a kiosk. Some food stores, they have smart cards, and you put the item in the cart and just walk out the store. You don't even have to see the individual. So we are just catching up to times that we're probably about a half step behind. But technology and expansion probably is going to be the two main things which will cause you to see a different Bahamasair in five years' time.
David Casey:
Okay, Tracy. Well, we thank you for your time today, and we look forward to seeing how the carrier develops and expands over the coming years. So, thank you for joining us today on Window Seat, and thank you to our producer, Cory Hitt, and thank you to you, our listeners. Make sure to tune in next time for another episode of Window Seat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. But until then, this is David Casey disembarking from Window Seat.
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