bahamas airports
Bahama Islands News, Articles and Information
Easier clearance for airport users next month
From left, Director General of Tourism, Carolle Guntley, and Minister of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture, Aloun Assamba, respond to questions posed by the media during the Caribbean Tourism Conference in Freeport, Grand Bahamas, in The Bahamas yesterday. - Photo by Janet SilveraFreeport, Bahamas:
As of next month, new procedures at both the Norman Manley and the Sangster International airports will allow for a smoother flow of visitors through customs, says Minister of Tourism, Entertainment and Culture, Aloun N'Dombet Assamba.
"Passengers with 'No Goods to Declare' (green line area) will walk through the customs hall without having to be checked or interviewed by a customs officer," the minister announced to journalists at a press briefing at the Caribbean Tourism Conference (CTC-29), which kicked off in Freeport, Grand Bahama in The Bahamas yesterday.
LPIA expected to be transformed into 'world-class' airport
After more than three years of intense negotiations and an investment of some $200 million, an historic management agreement to transform the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) into a world-class premier facility was signed on Thursday by the government of The Bahamas and the Nassau Airport Development Company - a subsidiary of the Airport Authority and Vancouver Airport Services (YVRAS). The Vancouver-based company, recommended by the British Airports Authority, will manage LPIA for the next 10 years. Work on Phase I, which is expected to span 24 months, will begin within the next 60 days. Once the airport is fully overhauled, international travellers will have to pay a passenger facility fee of $15 and a security fee of $7. Such fees will go toward the continued development and expansion of the airport facility.
Air taxes too burdensome
The International Air Transport Association's director for the Americas, Humberto Rivero, said some Caribbean governments see the airlines as a cash cow. He said they should instead be looking at the airline industry as making a contribution to economic development.He said they imposed burdensome taxes which drive carriers out of the region and, at times, out of business. "Taxes is the biggest issue confronting the airline industry, Rivero told the annual Caribbean tourism conference in the Bahamas.
"There are fuel taxes, landing fees taxes, taxes for travellers and airline taxes which all need to be taken into consideration," he said.
Rivero's remarks seemed aimed particularly at governments which are preparing their airports for divestment. Financial Incentives He said investors who won bids for airport privatisation soon realised the high operating costs and sought to tax the airlines even further.
WestJet is Growing Up
With 10 years under its belt, the Calgary-based LCC looks to new markets and demographics to fuel growth.By Aaron Karp Calgary Air Transport World, November 2006, p.26
WestJet executives and employees gathered in the airline's hangar here earlier this year for a "farewell party" to commemorate the retirement of the low-cost carrier's last 737-200, an aircraft type that was once its workhorse but has given way to a new, more fuel efficient fleet of 63 737NGs. The January bash to toast an airplane whose time had passed was, in a sense, also a way to say goodbye to WestJet's founding era.
Launched in 1996 as an LCC focused almost exclusively on carrying leisure passengers on short-haul western Canadian routes, it is now a national carrier that challenges Air Canada for preeminence in the domestic market (its share is 33%-35% and rising), is beginning to tackle the transborder and Caribbean markets and appears to be growing in popularity among Canadian business travelers.