Bahamasair wishes to
extend its sincerest apologies to the travelling public for the inconvenience
caused as a result of the industrial action undertaken by the Executives and
members of the Bahamas Airline Pilots Association (B-ALPA). This action affected all of our scheduled
flights this afternoon with impact potentially into tomorrow.
During the past six
months Bahamasair and B-ALPA Executives have been in cordial, respectful and
cooperative discussions regarding a new labour agreement. This action took management totally by
surprise.
Executives of B-ALPA
walked out of a contract negotiation meeting this morning at the Ministry of
the Labour where discussions regarding salary structure for the new contract were
taking place. Bahamasair’s Management is
gravely disappointed that the Pilots took this position, after it was explained
in great detail that their counter proposal was to be vetted by the Minister of
Labour and shared with his Cabinet colleagues tomorrow morning.
Management considers
B-ALPA’s actions unreasonable and unwarranted - considering the fact that these
pilots are the highest paid in the region.
Management feels that the current salary proposal submitted to B-ALPA is
reasonable and places their salaries that much further ahead of the salaries
paid to other regional carriers, particularly state owned Airlines.
Bahamasair has
consistently made strides to improve viability and efficiency since its inception
in 1973. However, it has struggled in
the face of unsustainable labour costs which account for 44.6% of the airline’s
total revenue; which has made it challenging for the company to achieve
financial success. This unfortunate
situation is not the result of some reckless action by the Board or Management
and we wish to invite the Executives of B-ALPA to return to the bargaining
table and resume negotiations to complete a new agreement in good faith.
This
re-accommodation of the inordinate amount of passengers as a result of this
action is an expensive one which we hope to bring to a close as soon as
possible. Bahamasair is cognizant that
this is the height of our peak travel period and we will do the best we can to
mitigate any further disruption to your holiday travel plans.
We will keep the
public informed of any new developments.
