Two weeks ahead of when flights were due to begin into Nassau on two new routes from Trenton, New Jersey and Washington, D.C. - and only months after announcing the new routes - Frontier Airlines has dropped the new routes amid apparent concerns over room shortages due to Baha Mar's delayed opening.
The two new routes were scheduled to begin on November 20. However, a statement by Frontier is said to have cited a problem with hotel room availability in Nassau, and to have referenced the Baha Mar delay.
Baha Mar had been scheduled to open in December 2014, but has now pushed back its opening to March 2015. The $3.5 billion mega-resort is expected to feature nearly 3,000 hotel rooms across a number of resort hotels.
The Ministry of Tourism's Director of Airlift Tyrone Sawyer told Guardian Business from London that the cancellation is "no reason to panic".
"We're disappointed that it happened. We will nevertheless leave the door open for future opportunities with Frontier into The Bahamas," he said.
In August, the new routes were announced as part of Frontier's new ultra-low-cost carrier (ULCC) strategy, but as the airline's new owners continue to adjust its route network - presumably to compete with other ULCCs like Spirit Airlines - it appears Frontier has decided that canceling the route was preferable to losing money, even over a short period.
An airline trade publication revealed that a number of cities have been dropped from the Frontier network recently, with plans to suspend service to Bakersfield and Fresno, California, as well as Eugene, Oregon and Fairbanks, Alaska, and plans to permanently drop Palm Springs, California.
Airline spokesman Ted Lehmacher reportedly told the trade publication that bookings on the two Bahamas routes "did not meet expectations".
The aircraft that had been allocated for the Bahamas service will instead fly two other routes -- Dulles, Virginia to Miami, Florida and Trenton, New Jersey to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

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