“Encouraged By Level Of Interest In Bermuda”

During a recent airline conference in South Africa, the Bermuda delegation “met with several European airlines to discuss potential service to and from the United Kingdom and Europe and were pleasantly encouraged by their level of interest in Bermuda,” Minister of Tourism Development & Transport Shawn Crockwell said in the House of Assembly on Friday [Nov 20].

Minister Crockwell said that in 2007, Bermuda had for the first time in 40 years, a competing service to London when Zoom Airlines provided scheduled weekly flights.

“The low cost airline carried thousands of passengers that year before it was wound up, having succumbed to the financial pressures of the-then fuel crisis which at the time, strangled the airline industry, forcing a number of low cost airlines out of business,” said the Minister.

“However, Zoom’s performance on the route caused no change in traffic numbers for British Airways year over year, meaning that the presence of a competing carrier succeeded in growing the market rather than cannibalizing it.

“This gives us confidence that there still is an opportunity for two airlines to succeed in providing service to Bermuda out of the UK/European market.

“However, we would be remiss to pursue new opportunities without first ensuring that we fill the seats that we already have and that our existing airline partners are successful.”

The Minister’s full statement follows below:

Mr. Speaker, in September of this year, the Airport General Manager and I, along with a representative from the Bermuda Tourism Authority, attended the World Routes Conference in Durban, South Africa.

World Routes is an annual conference designed to facilitate scheduled meetings between the most senior representatives from airlines, airports and tourism authorities from around the world, to discuss air service development opportunities.

It is the largest, most prestigious, global annual event of its kind, this year attracting over 2,500 delegates representing 250 different airlines, 650 different airports and 170 tourism authorities. It is an event that our Airport first attended over 10 years ago.

Mr. Speaker, our objective at this year’s event was to meet with both our existing airline partners and those we identified as potential new partners, to discuss the exciting developments taking place in Bermuda surrounding new hotel investment, overall tourism initiatives and of course, the America’s Cup; and how we believe these developments are poised to help foster greater air service opportunities.

Mr Speaker, we met with several European airlines to discuss potential service to and from the United Kingdom and Europe and were pleasantly encouraged by their level of interest in Bermuda.

Members of this Honourable House will recall in 2007, Bermuda had for the first time in 40 years, a competing service to London when Zoom Airlines provided scheduled weekly flights.

The low cost airline carried thousands of passengers that year before it was wound up, having succumbed to the financial pressures of the-then fuel crisis which at the time, strangled the airline industry, forcing a number of low cost airlines out of business.

However, Zoom’s performance on the route caused no change in traffic numbers for British Airways year over year, meaning that the presence of a competing carrier succeeded in growing the market rather than cannibalizing it.

Mr Speaker, this gives us confidence that there still is an opportunity for two airlines to succeed in providing service to Bermuda out of the UK/European market.

However, we would be remiss to pursue new opportunities without first ensuring that we fill the seats that we already have and that our existing airline partners are successful. To that end, a meeting was held with British Airways executives on our way to South Africa to discuss their service to Bermuda.

Mr Speaker, British Airways has served Bermuda proudly for nearly 80 years – it’s an unprecedented relationship that has spanned generations. During this meeting in London, the airline reaffirmed its commitment to Bermuda. Topics which were canvassed included but were not limited to some of the challenges BA had earlier this year concerning flight disruptions and cancellations. The airline assured us that new measures have been put in place to protect Bermuda against similar disruptions moving forward and I’m happy to say that we’ve seen the fruits of those efforts.

Mr Speaker, Bermuda remains a very important market for British Airways and it’s one they want to see expand. They are willing to work with us on establishing more competitive airfares. There is no doubting that this is a critical step necessary to stimulate demand.

However, we’ll need to ensure that any introduction of reduced airfares is met by similar aggressive pricing by our hotels so as to create an overall competitive travel package for our target audience during times when seat and bed inventory is otherwise left unsold.

The airline is confident that with the new hotel development projects in progress, they can work with Bermuda’s tourism stakeholders to grow our market. It’s an approach they’ve seen succeed in St. Lucia for example, where the airline grew its air service to the island in direct correlation with the growth in new hotel properties and with competitive air and hotel package pricing.

Mr. Speaker, we also met with several of our North American airline partners to discuss their views on the performance of their Bermuda flights. Again, we were encouraged by the feedback but recognize that whilst the late Spring and Summer season continues to garner positive results, more work is needed to fill the seats we have during the Fall and Winter.

We are very pleased that the Government was able to restore the United Airlines service out of Newark for the November through March period; and has secured a second American Airlines flight out of New York’s JFK Airport, resulting in a near 15 percent increase in winter airlift. We are cognizant that with the added capacity, there is no doubt ample room to grow visitor traffic and I am confident that we are poised to do so.

Mr. Speaker, our airline meetings in London and in South Africa have proven to be very productive. The Routes Conference continues to be an opportune time for us to discuss both new and existing air service route opportunities with a number of airlines.

We shall continue our efforts to ensure that Bermuda maintains a level of airline seat capacity that aligns with its passenger volume, whether that is through expanding service out of existing gateways or introducing service out of new gateway cities where there is viable growth potential.

Thank You

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