THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE BAHAMASAIR MODEL

Dionisio D’Aguilar, the Minister of Tourism and responsible for Bahamasair, was not happy about what happened with Bahamasair over the Christmas Holidays. Well neither was the public.  Bahamasair had a number of problems which resulted in a schedule of flights that was unreliable. A combination of bad weather, shutdowns in Florida and planes going down for mechanicals left their flight schedule in shambles.  Mr. D’Aguilar claimed that the business model for Bahamasair is wrong.  That’s from the man who washed clothes for a living up until he became the Minister of Tourism.  He said that until the business model changes there will always be problems for Bahamasair.   Mr. D’Aguilar no doubt feels emboldened to speak as an expert now that he has been declared the Minister of the Year for Tourism in Caribbean.  It is an award that he neither deserves or earned.  He got it because The Bahamas was also declared the Destination of The Year in the Caribbean because of the tourism success of Bahamar.  Mr. D’Aguilar was one of those who trashed the Bahamar development and said it was fake and wanted it to fail.  Yet here he is now taking credit for something that he did nothing to help succeed.  Bahamasair’s business model is fine: it must transport Bahamians from island to island and to the international community.  It is the airline of last resort to get tourists here if all else fails.  What we need is a government who understands that and simply gives Bahamasair the money it needs and the planes it needs to do that.  Until then, we will have problems.