As Bermudan flag-carrier BermudAir prepares to double the size of its small fleet and expand its route network, it is determined not to over-extend itself.
The airline currently operates two Embraer 175s, which are expected to be joined by two E190 E1s early in Q2 2025.
When the first E190 arrives, one of the airline’s three aircraft will be designated a ‘hot spare’ that can step in to preserve services in the event of a technical issue. It will also serve as an on-demand charter aircraft.
BermudAir’s decision to have a spare aircraft in a fleet of just four was perhaps informed by an incident last April when both of its E175s were simultaneously unserviceable.
“That was a bit of an eye-opener for us and stressful, and we’re on an island in the middle of the Atlantic, so when something does go wrong we have additional complexities in moving [spare] parts and so on,” founder and CEO Adam Scott said.
“We’ve built up a bit of a following…we’ve made a bit of a mark in terms of quality and level of service. Part of that is reliability and dependability. We want to make sure we have the best redundancy possible. If and when a technical issue happens, we can recover from that really quickly.
“Bermuda is a really interesting market. Not a lot of people understand it. It’s not a Caribbean island and, of course, it’s got a very robust business market because of its nature of being a center of the reinsurance industry – in fact, it’s the capital, you might say.”
This means that BermudAir’s clientele is much more varied than purely the holiday traffic that many people assume it carries.
Roughly one-third of the airline’s passengers are residents. (“It’s one of the wealthiest countries in the world and residents like to live both on and off the island.”) Another third consists of business traffic, notably financial services with that reinsurance industry focus, while the remaining third is high-end leisure.
Both the E175 and E190 will operate with dual-class layouts, with the E175s having 10 business and 60 economy seats, while the E190s will have eight business and 88 economy.
With 96 passenger seats, the Embraer 190 offers greater capacity for both travellers and cargo, featuring approximately 1,000 kg more cargo space and an additional range of 1,000km compared to the 175s. That improved performance will be particularly noticeable during the hot summer months, Scott said. The additional cargo space will also come in useful: “Bermudans like to shop,” while the 190s will also be able to handle more commercial freight.
The fourth aircraft will allow the airline to start servicing several more destinations announced earlier this year: Hartford, CT/Springfield, MA, Raleigh-Durham, NC, and Charleston, SC starting in April 2025. In February, the carrier announced further additions to its route map – Providence RI, Richmond VA and Montreal, Quebec. Frequencies on some existing routes, such as Boston, MA and Westchester, NY will also be increased.
The vast majority of the company’s routes have no direct competition, Scott said.
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