Bahamasair
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Bahamasair is an airline based in Nassau, Bahamas. It is the national airline and operates domestic and regional scheduled services. Its main base is Nassau International Airport (NAS).
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History
Bahamasair was born out of the oil crisis of the 1970s. In 1970, British Airways stopped flying to The Bahamas, and the Bahamian Government accurately predicted that some of the other major airlines flying to the country would follow British Airways' lead. So Bahamasair was established by the government and started operations on 18 June 1973, by acquiring the operations of Flamingo Airlines and Out Island Airways. Bahamasair was met initially with a lot of problems, such as poor maintenance facilities, economic shape and company structure.
All that brought public distrust as a consequential added problem. But soon jets started to arrive in the shape of brand new Boeing 737s, and in 1972, it opened its first international service, from Nassau to Tampa, Florida. In 1973, the government's vision of many airlines leaving the island became a reality, when Pan Am and a few other major companies decided to walk the road out that had been opened by British Airways. With that, Bahamasair grabbed a substantial part of the Bahamas air market. Through the rest of the 1970s, Bahamasair kept adding flights to other cities in Florida and, domestically, the presence of the airline also grew at a large rate.
During the early 1980s, Bahamasair unsuccessfully tried to expand to the Northeast United States, opening flights to Philadelphia, Washington DC (Dulles) and Newark, New Jersey. But in 1989, the airline's directors decided that those routes were not profitable and cut them off the airline's route map. Also in 1989, the Boeing 727 first came into the fleet. They would acquire a total of two. That was also the year that a new livery and workers' uniform were introduced.
In 1991, De Havilland DHC-8 were brought over to substitute the whole jet fleet, but in 1997, the Boeing 737's made their way back, and those, in turn, substituted the DHC-8's on the routes to Florida, while the DHC-8's were kept to cover the domestic routes.
Services
Bahamasair operates the following services (at January 2005):
- Domestic scheduled services: Andros Town, Arthur's Town, Crooked Island, Deadmans Cay, Freeport, George Town, Governors Harbour, Inagua, Mangrove Cay, Marsh Harbour, Mayaguana, Nassau, North Eleuthera, Rock Sound, San Andros, San Salvador, South Andros, Spring Point, Stella Maris, The Bight and Treasure Cay.
- International scheduled services: Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Providenciales, Santo Domingo and West Palm Beach.
Livery
Its livery is comprised of white, ocean blue and sunshine yellow on the fuselage with the name Bahamasair written over the passenger windows in ocean blue, with an ocean blue tail that has the face of a white, green and yellow bird portrayed.
Fleet
The Bahamasair fleet consists of the following aircraft (at January 2005):
- 4 Boeing 737-200
- 8 Bombardier Dash 8 Q300
External Links
- Bahamasair (http://www.bahamasair.com/)
- Bahamasair Passenger Opinions (http://www.airlinequality.com/Forum/bahamasair.htm)
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