business@tribunemedia.net
Tuesday, March 3, 2026
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Double-digit Out Island hotel fall over ‘Florida hub erosion’ BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net FAMILY Island hotels suffered a “concerning” double-digit percentage decline in both room revenues and nights sold for January 2026, it has been revealed, with a senior tourism executive warning that The Bahamas must urgently solve a “Florida hub erosion problem”. Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Island Promotion Board’s executive director, told Tribune Business that “preliminary” January numbers for member hotels were down 23 percent year-over-year for room nights sold and 12 percent for room revenues to represent a continuation of the negative trends seen during the 2025 fourth quarter. He attributed the fall-off to the failure to fully, and comprehensively, replace the loss of around 135,000 annual airline seats into multiple Family Island destinations that was caused by Silver Airways early June 2025 collapse. As a result, airlift seat counts into destinations such as Marsh Harbour, Eleuthera, Georgetown in Exuma and Bimini declined by between 35 percent and up to 75 percent in 2025 compared to the prior year. Mr Fountain, though, told this newspaper that - while he can “see light at the end of the tunnel” on the south Florida airlift deficiencies - it is
PM’s Climate Change Unit’s carbon credit fear Warned four-acre seagrass loss ‘not in balance’ Developer cut footprint, pledged to buy credits
Seat count to key locations off 35-75% withh Silver loss
BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Airlift decline ‘uncomfortable truth’ needing local solution
THE Rosewood Exuma developer agreed to slash its dredging “footprint” by 75 percent after a unit within the Prime Minister’s Office voiced concern it could cost The Bahamas up to $25m in lost ‘blue carbon credits’ revenues. Documents filed with the Supreme Court as part of the Judicial Review challenge to the project’s environmental approvals disclose that the developer, Miamibased Yntegra Group, also pledged to purchase Bahamian carbon credits once issued after the Government’s Climate Change and Environmental Advisory Unit voiced concern that the dredging would destroy key seagrass meadows.
KERRY FOUNTAIN Exuma, Bimini and other Family Islands. Mr Fountain voiced hope that a Bahamian solution - especially Bahamasair, or Western Air - will be found to fill the airlift gap left by Silver Airways, and signalled that talks involving the national flag carrier have begun. However, he noted that, with Silver Airways’ demise, The Bahamas has also lost the inter-Florida connectivity it provided with other airport hubs such as Orlando and Tampa. The Promotion Board chief, describing 2025 as an “up and down year”, said last year’s strong first quarter lost momentum around the time Donald Trump made his ‘Liberation Day’ announcement on US
CAPACITY - See Page B2
Commonwealth Brewery loses bid to resurrect $2.4m claim
Gov’t, GBPA urged: Release $357m dispute verdict quick
BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
THE outcome of the $357m Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) arbitration dispute must be swiftly disclosed to uphold business and investor confidence, it was argued yesterday, amid subtle hints the verdict may not have gone fully the Government’s way. Dillon Knowles, the Grand Bahama Chamber of Commerce’s president, told
BISX-listed Commonwealth Brewery’s bid to resurrect a $2.4m damages counterclaim over the loss of its 40-year Budweiser distribution agreement was yesterday dismissed by the highest court in the Bahamian judicial system. The London-based Privy Council, in a unanimous verdict that rejected the vertically-integrated brewer’s appeal, backed the Court of Appeal’s decision that the three-and-a-half month notice provided by Budweiser’s parent, Anheuser-Busch International (ABI), that it was terminating the two sides’ Bahamian distribution deal and switching to the rival Bahamian Brewery and Beverage Company (Sands) was sufficient. Both higher courts thus rejected an earlier Supreme Court ruling which found that Anheuser-Busch International should have given the BISX-listed brewer, which is 75 percent owned by rival global brewing giant, Heineken, some 15 months’ warning of its plans to end their relationship. The Privy Council determined that the alleged loss of profits suffered by Commonwealth Brewery subsidiary, Burns House, was “not a relevant consideration” as Budweiser accounted for just 10 percent of its total turnover. Detailing the background to the dispute, the Privy Council recalled: “In 1975, Burns House and ABI entered into an oral contract for the sale and distribution of beer in the Bahamas, which gave Burns House the exclusive right to distribute Anheuser-Busch International’s products in The Bahamas. “Under the distribution agreement, which continued until 2015, ABI provided Burns House through CND with shipments of products and marketing material. ABI or CND invoiced Burns House for the goods when they were shipped, and each invoice identified that payment was due within one month of the date of the invoice. The
SUPPLY - See Page B6
BY NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
Tribune Business that - given the decision’s importance for Freeport’s governance and future development - it was vital that both sides rapidly agree to release the outcome and any “conditions” attached because “investors abhor a vacuum and uncertainty”. He asserted: “Freeport’s governance is dependent on what the ruling is, what the conditions of the ruling are and, the sooner we know what the ruling is and conditions
A TRADE union leader yetsterday threatened to sue the Government’s labour director and chief labour negotiator after it was asserted that he had met and discussed Grand Lucayan severnce payouts with them. Obie Ferguson KC, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, threatened legal action against Howard Thompson and Bernard Evans, chief negotiator at the Government’s labour resources unit, over suggestions he had agreed to unfavourable terms in the redundancy exercise OBIE FERGUSON KC for the 94
The Davis administration’s long-stated policy has been to monetise seagrass beds, and other natural assets that extract carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere, into sustainable revenue streams for The Bahamas. But the Climate Change Unit, in an October 15, 2024, memorandum argued that Yntegra Group’s dredging plans for Sampson Cay’s North Bay were directly contrary to the Government’s environmental posture and plans to leverage such carbon ‘sinks’ into income-generating securities. Warning that the development’s likely environmental impact was “not in keeping with the requirements which will allow the Government to enter the carbon market ENVIRONMENTAL - See Page B4
don’t know what’s going to happen next from a legal and regulatory perspective. “That’s the world over, and is are, the better not specific to The because investors abhor a vacuum Bahamas. We need and uncertainty. to know the rules PHILIP DAVIS KC “Therefore, it’s of engagement, important for all both as investors parties to know and as residents of what the rules of engage- Freeport. We need to know the ment in Freeport are going rules of engagement. We’ve to be going forward. Uncer- waited this far, and I guess we tainty is the bane of investors. have to wait a bit longer, but Investors love certainty. They hopefully we will not have too are not going to plonk down long to wait.” their hard-earned cash in an environment where they OUCTOME - See Page B5
Union president threatens legal action over Lucayan BY ANNELIA NIXON Tribune Business Reporter anixon@tribunemedia.net
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Yntegra cut dredging by 75% over Govt’s ‘$25m carbon losses’
January room revenues, nights sold down 12% and 23%
still unknown how the Family Islands and wider Bahamas will get there and “who do we experience that light with?” Thus far, replacing Silver Airways has been somewhat piecemeal, with American Airlines launching direct flights to Bimini three times per week from Miami on February 14. Bahamasair has also launched direct service between Fort Lauderdale and Georgetown in Exuma, and a variety of smaller carriers such as Tropic Ocean Airways - which eight to ten-seat planes - have sought to partially fill the void left by Silver Airways. However, their seat capacity does not compare to the 50 and 70-seat aircraft that Silver Airways was flying into Abaco, Eleuthera,
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Grand Lucayan middle managers that are represented by his Bahamas Hotel Managerial Association (BHMA). Mr Ferguson said some members had received as little as $1,200 during Friday’s termination payouts while denying that he met Mr Thompson and Mr Evans to discuss the the matter or that there was any agreement. “Firstly, let me state unequivocally I never had a meeting with the director of labour,” Mr Ferguson said. “I never had a meeting with Bernard Evans. But I heard all over every radio station indicating that I had a meeting with them, and we came to an agreement with respect to the workers at Grand Lucayan. That is irresponsible. “I'm filing a writ for defamation of character. I'm a KC. I'm an attorney. I'm the president of TUC. I'm the president of Bahamas Hotel Managerial
MEETING - See Page B6