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MONDAY, JULY 22, 2024
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Top pilot body warns PM on ‘egregious’ fee hikes By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE world’s largest private pilot body has warned the Prime Minister “there is no question The Bahamas will lose its competitive advantage” unless it tackles “egregious fees” and other obstacles to general aviation. Mark Baker, president and chief executive of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), which represents between 300,000 and 400,00 plane owners and pilots, told Philip Davis KC in a July 17, 2024, letter that the combination of increased Customs and airport fees, together with the prospect of a more complex entry process, threatens to undermine this key tourism industry segment. AOPA, whose 2022 intervention helped to halt the imposition of Customs’
• ‘No question Bahamas will lose competitive advantage’ • Mix of higher Customs, airport charges ‘perfect storm’ • Pilots pushed ‘over the edge’; Key West looks better Click2Clear border control system on general aviation, issued its warning as the backlash against the newly-introduced higher Customs fees and Bimini airport fees gained escalating momentum on private pilot social media forums with even Bahamas flying ambassadors voicing reservations. The general consensus among pilots posting in the Bahamas Flying Forum page on Facebook is that the fee hikes have made Key West a far more attractive destination, while
challenging why from July 1, 2024, they now have to pay more in “inbound” and “outbound” fees to Customs than a Boeing commercial jet airliner. The mix of higher Customs and new airport fees has been branded “the perfect storm”. Charlie Beliveau wrote: “We went to Staniel Cay last two years. Probably pumped $5,000 each year into the local economy. The new fees are a small part of that, but I don’t think I should be punished for visiting. An A36
doesn’t cost The Bahamas any more than a 172 in services. Especially when four seats are empty. I’ll go place where we are welcomed. Signature at Key West just became reasonable.” In one thread, a pilot brands one aircraft model having “to pay double” in Customs fees what another has to, even with two extra empty seats, as “what a BS”. They added: “I know $300 is not a crazy amount but a weekend trip makes less sense. I’m sure that there are still other fees and roadblocks. Looks like The Bahamas want to turn into Haiti. They are on good way.” After being informed that departure taxes and other fees will also be levied, the same pilot, Marcin Drygala, replies: “So now my trip just for fees is $450 before parking
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IT meltdown ‘wake up call’ for local business By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net BAHAMIAN businesses and information technology (IT) providers yesterday branded Friday’s global meltdown “a wake-up call” in exposing this nation’s vulnerability to events over which it has no control. Debra Symonette, Super Value’s president, told Tribune Business that the impact from CrowdStrike’s faulty cyber security upgrade knocking all its clients’ Microsoft Windows’ systems offline could have been much worse for the supermarket chain, other
businesses and the wider Bahamian economy. The only difficulties encountered were in processing card transactions for the customers of one bank she declined to name. “Fortunately, by the time we got around to it, it was only that particular bank,” Ms Symonette said. “All the other banks seemed to be straightened out. I understand that it was all around. Our point-of-sale (POS) was up but the credit and debit card machine was the thing we had problems with. It was just one bank.
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‘Unfriendly’ society found illegally selling insurance By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net INSURANCE regulators found an entity registered under the Friendly Societies Act was breaching multiple laws by selling insurance products to persons who were non-members. The Insurance Commission of The Bahamas (ICB), in its just-released 2023 annual report, revealed that the unnamed entity was operating in breach of both the Insurance Act and Friendly Societies Act and committing what it branded “a significant breach of regulatory protocols”. “An extensive investigation uncovered that an entity registered under the Friendly Societies Act had
been illicitly disseminating insurance products to individuals who were not members of said entity, contravening the provisions stipulated in both the Insurance Act and the Friendly Societies Act,” the regulator wrote. “Further examination revealed that the entity was operating without the requisite registration and licensing from the Commission, signalling a significant breach of regulatory protocols. In response to these findings, a public warning was promptly issued, cautioning individuals against conducting any form of insurance transaction with this entity.”
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IT meltdown won’t halt digital payments drive • Businessman: Shows ‘folly of cashless society’ By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE Bahamas’ digital payments drive will not be stalled by Friday’s global IT outage, a prominent banker argued yesterday, as the benefits “far outstrip” the impacts from this event. Gowon Bowe, the Clearing Banks Association’s chairman, estimated to Tribune Business that “60 percent of commerce” in The Bahamas was not impacted by CrowdStrike, the cyber security firm, implementing a faulty upgrade that rendered clients’ Microsoft Windows systems largely inoperable. Arguing that the incident must be placed in context, he asserted that the advantages created by digital payment mechanisms greater speed and efficiency in closing transactions,
GOWON BOWE improved security and reduced loss and fraud - “far outweigh” the temporary “inconvenience” caused by the CrowdStrike fiasco that is thought to have knocked eight million computers offline globally. However, Bahamian businessman Ethric Bowe yesterday argued that the global IT meltdown - and the disruption caused to
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