While Prime Minister Perry Christie waited in Nassau for recommendations from a govermnent-negotiating team before handing over full management of the international airport to a Vancouver group, the Canadians patiently waited for a “response from the Bahamas government” as to what was happening to the unsigned contract.
In June, Airport Authority general manager Joseph Reckley told The Tribune that the negotiations over the final agreement had been unexpectedly drawn out. We are not surprised. The contract over the months had been changed drastically from the offer on which bids were invited.
Although government’s original advertisement offered a contract for a 30-year lease, in the end YVARS of Vancouver was awarded a 10-year management contract for Nassau’s airport. Instead, the 30-year lease is to go to Newco, a company owned by the Airport Authority.
With government so entangled in the new venture – remembering that political interference is the airport’s main problem – we are surprised that YVRAS is still interested in the proposal.
“We still have some t’s’ to cross and ‘i’s’ to dot,” Mr Reckley told The Tribune. “We would have thought that negotiations would have been wrapped up a lot sooner than this, but it didn’t happen.”
The public would have also thought that negotiations would have been wrapped up sooner, especially as a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed in January and government had promised an airport handover by April. By now YVRAS has learned that this government takes an incredibly long time to cross its “t’s” and dot its “i’s”.
According to Mr Reckley, final negotiations hit some unexpected snags.
We think Montagu MP Brent Symonette located the main snag when he suggested to House members that the delay in signing the YVRAS agreement might have been caused by “exclusive rights of certain tenants at the airport controlled by supporters” of the PLP. The exclusive rights to which he referred are probably the retail and liquor concessions. We suggest that as soon as the House reconvenes after its summer recess, the Opposition makes it its business to uncover the story behind these concessions.
Even baggage handlers are giving their version of the holdup as explained to an American visitor, who, in a letter to The Tribune, said a handler told him that “the poor performing retail stores had ‘connections’ and there was some hesitance in making that change for fear of losing their locations.” So the word is getting around.
As government plays its cat-and-mouse game, the airport continues to deteriorate. It is as though, not only is no one in charge, but no one seems to care any more. In July The Tribune reported that almost every representative attending this year’s National Tourism Conference blamed conditions at the airport for negatively affecting the tourism industry and the economy. But no one is taking it seriously. They are still crossing “t’s” and dotting “i’s”.
We have heard so many complaints about the airport – broken carousels, dirty bathrooms, lack of flight information and inability to make reservations after hours – the information desk opens at 9.30am and closes at 4.30pm. The list goes on.
But a new twist comes from a passenger who had to report to the airport at 5am last week for a 7am flight to Ft Lauderdale. He arrived at the departure lounge at about 6:10am where a line of about 15 people had already started to form to get something to eat and drink. However, “Cafe in the Clouds” was still closed.
The passenger said that as he wanted nothing to drink, but was hungry, he passed those waiting in line for a drink, went to the refrigerator and took out an $8 tuna sandwich. He went up to the man behind the counter to pay.
The passenger was told that the cashier was not there.
“I asked who he was,” said the passenger. “He said he was the manager. So I asked why he could not cash me out. He said it was a union issue and he could not use the cash register. I asked him when the cashier was expected. He said between 8 and 9am. I said: ‘You got to be joking!’ He asked: ‘Why?’ I told him that it was disgraceful in an international airport to be operating in this manner.” It was then shortly after 6am.
The manager told the passenger that the union bus driver was having a dispute with the staff – this was an explanation as to why staff was late. He said the bus driver will no longer pick up staff in front of their homes because they are never ready when he arrives. He now picks them up at the bus stop.
Editorial from The Tribune
