The air operations certificate of Flamingo Air was temporarily suspended following a fatal plane crash in Andros on July 10th. This move has left a void in airlift to some islands in the northern Bahamas such as Bimini.
Member of Parliament for Bimini and the Berry Islands, Randy Rolle told ZNS News on Monday initiatives are underway to resolve the issue. He said, “I believe that within very short order an announcement will happen as it relates to Western Air and their efforts thus far. I don’t want to preempt what they’re about to do, but I’m satisfied with the conversation and where we’re at in terms of that conversation. I’ve also had an opportunity to reach out to Baleària and spoken to some of the stakeholders there and they are interested as well too and so I’m very satisfied with the results that we’re receiving from there. And so I ask the community to be a little more patient with us. But I can tell you that their Member of Parliament is working for them. The entire community has come together and don’t intend to leave any man behind.”
Minister of Transport and Member of Parliament for Central, Mangrove Cay and South Andros, the Hon. Leon Lundy also assured that the government is working to restore connectivity. He said, “I think the Member of Parliament for Bimini and the Berry Islands spoke about it where they’re already speaking with Baleària to try and get a new route between Bimini and Freeport. I know the minister for aviation spoke about a lot of airlines actually putting in a bid to try and get that route between Abaco and Freeport and Freeport and Bimini. So definitely I’m looking forward to it. I actually have to have a route also because one of the airline what used to go to Mangrove Cay, so right now we’re speaking with some aviation partners to try and get them involved to try and alleviate some of the stress on partners.
The fatal Flamingo Air plane crash is currently under investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority.
