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MONDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2022
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Bahamasair targeting $2m bulk cargo boost By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net
SAM BANKMAN-FRIED
BAHAMASAIR is targeting an initial $2m annual revenue boost from launching bulk cargo services, it has been revealed, with the number of passengers transported in 2022 set to almost double year-over-year. Tracy Cooper, the national flag carrier’s managing director, told Tribune Business that passenger numbers have already outstripped last year’s 440,000 total by 61 percent with three weeks - including the hightravel Christmas holiday season and its build-up - remaining in 2022. Predicting that Bahamasair will move just over 800,000 travellers for the full year, he added that this placed the airline within striking distance of the 940,000 it served during the “bumper” pre-COVID year of 2019. Confirming that the carrier is seeking to add extra routes in 2023 as its expands its fleet, the Bahamasair chief told this newspaper that its imminent entry into the bulk aviation cargo sector was “a natural flow” given that The Bahamas imports virtually all it
Bahamian liquidators fear FTX cut-off harm BAHAMASAIR BOEING 737
• Passenger count to near-double to 800k • Eyes route, Cuba/ Haiti cargo ‘expansion’ • Subsidy cut ‘about 50%’ from COVID-19
consumes. Acknowledging that it perhaps should have entered this market sooner, Mr Cooper said the airline is also seeking to transport cargo onwards from The Bahamas to Cuba and Haiti. However, while seeking to serve travel demand from Florida airports that it was “unable to properly meet” this summer through the addition of another jet in 2023, he admitted
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Fair share: Hotel rental unit tax not in effect yet By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net A KEY Budget measure designed to ensure hotel rental pool units pay their fair share of taxation has yet to be implemented amid the wait for legislation to give it lawful effect. Robert Sands, the Bahamas Hotel and Tourism Association’s (BHTA) president, speaking after the proposed Condo Act Hotels (Amendment) Bill 2022 was discussed at the body’s Friday annual general meeting (AGM), told Tribune Business the industry has held extensive discussions with the Davis administration to ensure
ROBERT SANDS its members “weren’t disadvantaged” by the extra taxation. Predicting that 2023 “is poised to be the new record year for Bahamian tourism”, he added that the resort industry had
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‘Banner year’: Resorts beat revenue target by 10% pts By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net RESORTS on major Family Islands are targeting “a banner year” in 2023 after room revenues through to end-October beat the industry’s postCOVID target by ten percentage points. Kerry Fountain, the Bahamas Out Island Promotions Board’s executive director, told Tribune Business that room revenues for its 37 member properties stood at 96 percent of 2019’s pre-pandemic numbers for the first ten months of 2022 compared to the 86 percent target set at the year’s start.
BRIAN SIMMS
KERRY FOUNTAIN And, while collective room nights sold for the same period were slightly off-target, standing at 83 percent of pre-COVID numbers from 2019 as opposed to the 95 percent goal, he voiced optimism
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By NEIL HARTNELL Tribune Business Editor nhartnell@tribunemedia.net THE JOINT provisional liquidators for FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary have revealed a month-long block on access to the company’s records is “frustrating” their efforts to secure and protect assets. Blaming John Ray, chief executive of the 134 FTX entities subject to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, over the access denial, the provisional liquidation trio are warning it is becoming time-critical that this be
restored given that some documents related to the collapsed crypto exchange “expire” after a 60-day period and will be permanently lost. Asserting that negotiations with Mr Ray have made little to no progress, Brian Simms KC, senior partner with the Lennox Paton law firm, and Kevin Cambridge and Peter Greaves, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) accounting duo, on Friday night filed an emergency motion with the Delaware
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