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‘Sabotage’: Aviation chief blasts $1m retroactive fees By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
t A'PPMIBSEZ OPU UP SFWJTJU HITTING Bahamian airlines IJLFT HJWFO and other carriers that serve this nation with $1m-plus retroactive UJDLFU JNQBDU fee demands is “akin to sabotaging the industry”, a senior aviation t -FBEJOH executive warned yesterday. UPVSJTN Anthony Hamilton, president of the Bahamas Association of FYFDVUJWFT Air Transport Operators, told CMJOETJEFE Tribune Business that it would “be foolhardy” for the Bahamas CZ #"/4" Air Navigation Services Authority (BANSA) not to rethink its t 4USBUFHZ approach after last week stunning ACBGnJOH A"U multiple industry operators with seeking increased fees for TPNF QPJOU XFMM billings the period May 2021 to end-July XJMM SVO ESZ 2024.
Warning that the industry’s already “slim margins” will likely leave many carriers unable to meet BANSA’s demands, he added that ticket prices charged to travelling passengers will now “take a hop in order for operators to say in business” and cover these retroactive fees. Mr Hamilton, warning that the situation will likely spark legal action unless BANSA backs down, told this newspaper that the Authority’s retroactive billing for air navigation services fees highlights wider problems in the aviation industry where the various regulatory and taxing agencies operate in “silos” and fail to see the bigger picture in terms of the overall financial burden on operators.
And, suggesting that the increasing “hardships” faced by existing carriers will discourage new entrants to the industry, he called on both public and private sector operators “to fix it for future generations”. Mr Hamilton said the increased BANSA fees also threaten to “displace” Bahamian-owned carriers and make this nation ever-more reliant on foreign carriers to meet its tourism airlift and air transportation needs. Meanwhile, a senior tourism executive yesterday indicated that he and other top officials were blindsided and taken unawares by BANSA’s retroactive billing move. Kerry Fountain, the Bahama Out Islands Promotion Board’s executive director, said he and Dr Kenneth Romer, director
THE Bahamian Contractors Association’s (BCA) president yesterday said the industry does not need the Government’s help to source materials outside the US, adding: “We’ve been doing this for 30-40 years.” Leonard Sands, speaking after the Bahamas Trade Commission said it was aiming to make construction costs more affordable by acquiring supplies from other Caribbean jurisdictions, told Tribune Business that the Government did not seem to realise the private sector has already been doing this for decades.
Instead, he argued that the Government should exploit its purchasing power and seek to acquire materials itself for use in its own housing programme if it was really serious about reducing construction and home ownership costs for Bahamians. These supplies could then be passed to the contractors hired to build government housing subdivisions. “Who’s asked for that in the private sector? Anyone?” Mr Sands told this newspaper of the Trade Commission’s building materials initiative. “They asked me about that, and engaged the BCA about that, and we told them very frankly that every contractor sources supplies from every
timezone in the market already from whoever they want it from. They don’t need the Government’s assistance in that regard. “I’m not going to go to the Government and say I need 15 pallets of plywood, here’s my money, can you go out and source it from Curacao or Venezuela for me. We can do that ourselves. It’s a matter of getting on the phone with a supplier and paying for it. There’s no advantage. “What the Government should do is, if it’s really interested in driving down the cost of housing for government subdivisions and government housing projects, they should source the materials and give it to the contractor to use. The private sector does
LEONARD SANDS not need the Government’s assistance to source product for the construction industry. We do that on a daily basis from around the world.” Disclosing that he has sourced tiles from Jerusalem in the Middle East, as well as materials from nations such as Vietnam and Germany, Mr Sands said there is “no barrier” to Bahamian contractors diversifying their supply chains. He added that the US is the main source of
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Opposition: Does Hutchison port exit also involve DEvCO? By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE terday
Opposition pressed
yesthe
Government on whether CK Hutchison Holdings’ plans to sell its interests in the Freeport Container Port and Freeport Harbour Company also include its real estate holdings.
Kwasi Thompson, the Opposition’s finance spokesman, during the conclusion of the midyear Budget debate in Parliament also asked the Government to confirm if the Freeport Container Port and 50 percent stake in Freeport Harbour Company, together with Board and management control, are in a worldwide $17.165bn proposed sale to a consortium featuring Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) and Blackrock. Mr Thompson said the deal, which involves some 43 ports spread across 23
different countries, is concerning for residents in Grand Bahama and asked for clarity on whether it affects the Hong Kong conglomerate’s investments in Grand Bahama Development Company (DevCO). “This issue may not have been raised, but it is an issue of concern for folks in east Grand Bahama. But also, I believe, in Grand Bahama as a whole, and that is the sale of or possible sale. I know we’ve been hearing sort of media reports
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PM challenges Opposition over economy’s recovery
PHILIP DAVIS KC
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Free drugs expansion ‘ain’t no pie in the sky’
Contractor chief: We don’t need Gov’t help in sourcing materials By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
of aviation and deputy tourism director-general, only learned that carriers were issued with the bills one day later on Friday. This, he told Tribune Business, occurred when they met with Silver Airways, the Florida-based carrier that is due to deliver between 85,000 and 90,000 seats to this destination between December 2024 to July 2025. Silver, which is presently in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US, confirmed that it, too, had received a “$1m-plus” retroactive bill from BANSA. Mr Fountain, in response, argued the approach was “baffling” and voiced fears that the burden of paying the extra fees will be passed - via ever-increasing airline ticket prices - directly to
MICHAEL PINTARD
t .JOJTUFS BTTFSUT AOP OFX SFWFOVF TPVSDF SFRVJSFE t A.BTTJWF TBWJOHT LFFQJOH QBUJFOUT BXBZ GSPN 1.) t 4BZT OPO DPNNVOJDBCMF EJTFBTFT OPX AFQJEFNJD By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A CABINET minister yesterday said “new revenue” is not required to finance an expansion of free medicine for Bahamians with chronic non-communicable diseases, as he asserted: “This ain’t no pie in the sky.” Dr Michael Darville, minister of health and wellness, told Tribune Business that long-standing ambitions to expand the National Chronic Drug Prescription Plan’s reach will be funded from “massive savings in tertiary care costs” generated by keeping Bahamians suffering from diabetes, hypertension and other similar diseases out of Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH). Rejecting assertions by the Opposition and others that this is merely an “election campaign” ploy, he argued that combating chronic non-communicable diseases - which have grown to “epidemic proportions” - at the earliest stages of By FAY SIMMONS Tribune Business Reporter jsimmons@tribunemedia.net THE Prime Minister yesterday challenged Michael Pintard, the Opposition’s leader, to state if he believes the economy has recovered from COVID-19 during a politically-charged end to the mid-year Budget debate. “Do you accept that the economy has recovered?” Philip Dabis KC asked, to which Mr Pintard admitted that it has, yet highlighted that The Bahamas’ gross domestic product (GDP)
DR MICHAEL DARVILLE primary care via the provision of free medications will generate savings “on the back end”. Dr Darville also told this newspaper that the 160,000 patients he referred to in the House of Assembly last week represents the number of Bahamians enrolled in the National Health Insurance (NHI) scheme, to which the National Chronic Drug Prescription Plan will ultimately be transferred to. The 160,000 figure is not the number of persons with chronic non-communicable
SEE PAGE B3 growth rate has slipped from 14 percent following the post-pandemic reopening back towards this nation’s historical average of a projected 1.7 percent for 2025. “Any economy that has been closed during COVID, once those economies re-open, there is a naturally-expected recovery in industry. When the economy re-opened, it reopened with a 14 percent, then 10 percent economic growth rate. And then it returned to pre pandemic numbers,” said Mr Pintard.
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