The Ministry of Tourism, Investments and Aviation and American Airlines have agreed to work on joint marketing initiatives to shore up flights into The Bahamas, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper said following a mission trip to Texas this last week, to showcase the The Bahamas to Dallas, Austin and Houston.

Cooper said American Airlines, which is headquartered in Dallas, is The Bahamas' largest airline partner, providing about 30 percent of the country's seat capacity. He added that the airline also operates flights directly into The Bahamas from Austin.

"This was a great opportunity for us to touch base with them and talk about their business and how well we're doing in terms of the load factors," said Cooper.

"We were assured that all of their flights are doing exceptionally well. In one particular case, where we were falling slightly below the 80 percent mark, we've agreed to work with them on some marketing initiatives.

"So, we really are strengthening our partnership for the future. We talked about some potential new airlift, some more frequent flights to Grand Bahama, the continuation of the American Airlines flight from Charlotte to Marsh Harbour, Abaco. We know that flight is taking a short break during the month of May. We've made a strong case for this flight to continue non-stop consistently through throughout the year, given the demands that we are seeing for these routes

"But, overall, we continue to have a great relationship with American Airlines, and we expect even more frequency in terms of flights moving forward."

Cooper said between five and six percent of this country's tourists hail from Texas.

Ahead of the Texas mission trip, the tourism ministry said in a statement that it is hoping to take advantage of the largest distribution of passports in a single state in the last five years, with 1.6 million more Texans now sporting passports.

Cooper said he deems last week's trip a success, having come away with preliminary commitments from the Houston Rockets to have their training camp in Nassau in September.

He said they are also negotiating partnerships with the Dallas Cowboys.

"We were impressed with proposals made to us by the AT&T Arena," said Cooper.

"They have year round events not just in football season. So we anticipate having a very significant reach with a captive audience, once that fan base rallies itself. Flashing Bahamas on the screen goes a long way."

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