Chairman of Bahamasair Valentine Grimes said yesterday the airline is expected to cover the Easter holiday traffic adequately in light of an out-of-service aircraft that received tornado damage last month.
Grimes told Guardian Business that with the current aircraft on board, Bahamasair should be able to meet the anticipated Easter demand.
The damaged $20 million ATR aircraft is expected to be replaced with a new one, Grimes explained a month after an engineer from ATR in Miami performed initial assessments.
Shortly after the passage of the tornado last month, Grimes assured the public that Bahamasair's flight schedules would not be significantly affected by one of its aircrafts being out of commission.
The French-Italian aircraft manufacturer inked a deal in 2015 with the national carrier for a total of five new ATR aircrafts.
On a year-over-year comparison, Grimes said the airline's performance around this time has been "satisfactory year to date".
"The airline continues to make significant positive strides," he said.
Grimes touted that for the first time in 17 years, the airline received a Cacique Award for international airlines.
"It is due in part for the improved level of service that our staff have provided to the public," he said.
He added that Bahamasair is very pleased with the level of leadership being provided by the company's new Managing Director Tracy Cooper.
"We think he is the right person in the place at the right time for Bahamasair," Grimes said.
However, in the interim, an update on the financial position of the cashed-strapped airline has yet to be presented in Parliament for the budgetary period. That update would include the company's financials for the 2015/2016 fiscal year.
It was reported that by the year ending June 30, 2014, Bahamasair's deficit increased to $551.1 million, based on a net loss for fiscal year 2013/2014 of $15.7 million. In addition, given that the company's liabilities exceeded its assets at the end of that fiscal year by more than $23.5 million, the critical need for a continued government guarantee remained.
Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian
