With hotel expansion plans fuelling the demand for more airlift, there has been renewed interest recently by smaller budget and commuter airlines to launch new services to the Bahamas.
From New York to Florida, airlines are seeking to expand into the region and especially to The Bahamas.
According to a press reports, Miramar-based Spirit Airlines joins AirTran Airways, JetBlue Airways and Deltaﾴs Song in seeking either to provide and or expand nonstop service to The Bahamas.
Air travel is one of the pivotal components of the hotel industry.
Rising fuel costs and the 9/11 aftermath has severely crippled the business model of the major carriers such as Delta, American Airlines and US Airways.
While the major carriers have had to cutback services to contain costs, new ﾑbudgetﾴ airlines have been exploiting the vacuum created by reduced services and rising travel costs.
Kerzner Internationalﾴs Atlantis Resort at Paradise Island has been driving the demand for air travel. Since its opening and expansion, the resort has fueled double-digit annual growth in occupancy rates as evidence but its most recent quarterly report, showing ﾓaverage occupancy of 89% and a $273 average daily room rate (“ADR”), which compared to an average occupancy of 85% and an ADR of $268 in the same period last year.ﾒ
The Atlantis Phase III, scheduled for completion in 2006, will lead to an additional 1,500 rooms and 100,000 square feet more of convention space.
News that three new airlines are applying to the US Department of Transportation for permission to increase airlift to The Bahamas was widely seen as welcome news for hoteliers here.
The low fare model that became popular in the US domestic routes is now being applied to international routes.
According to Stuart Klaskin, a partner with KKC Aviation Consulting in Coral Gables, told a Florida newspaper that airlines have ﾓdefied the previous conventional wisdom in the United States that the low-cost model wouldn’t work for international flights.ﾒ
Reuters reported on Wednesday that ﾓJetBlue, known for its low cost structure and its sustained profitabilityﾒ, had ﾓrequested authority from the U.S. Department of Transportation to provide international non-stop service from New York’s John F. Kennedy airport to Nassau.ﾒ
JetBlue carries more passengers through JFK airport than any other airline serving the US domestic market, Reuters reported.
Regional tourism growth has been pegged at an annual 4 percent over the next decade, according to a study done this summer by the private World Travel and Tourism Council.
The study found that Caribbean travel is being driven ﾠby Europeans taking advantage of the strong euro while Americans, after 9/11, are opting for destinations as close to continental US as possible.
Another contributing factor is the fast-growing Caribbean population in Florida. According to the Sun Sentinel the 2000 census showed that with a population of 800,000, ﾓpeople from Caribbean countries constitute the fastest-growing ethnic group in Broward, Palm and Miami-Dade counties.ﾒ Community leaders say the numbers are much higher.
Although Miami International Airport has been the traditional gateway for the region, the rise of the low cost model in international travel will increase air traffic out of the Fort Lauderdale Airport from which most low-cost carriers operate and or fly.
The Sun Sentinel reported that the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport has already shown an increase of ﾓalmost 26 percent for the first half of this yearﾒ over the similar period for 2003.
Increased airlift to Grand Bahama and New Providence, particularly by low cost carriers such as JetBlue, Deltaﾴs Song, Spirit Airlines and AirTran Airways, to meet the projected annual 4 percent growth in regional tourism for the next decade, suggests that resorts in The Bahamas can expect to enjoy increased occupancy levels over the foreseeable future.
C. E. Huggins, The Bahama Journal
