Tourism ministry ‘monitoring’ British Airways delays

One of the most popular routes from the Cayman Islands to London – on British Airways via Nassau, Bahamas – has been coming under fire from passengers who complain of increasing delays and cancellations.

There has been a litany of grievances posted on social media over the past year or so, mainly when passengers find themselves spending an unscheduled overnight – or longer – stay in the Bahamas on their way to or from Cayman because of problems with an aircraft or other issues.

Responding to queries from the Cayman Compass about the repeated BA flight disruptions, Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said, “Obviously, naturally, any negative effect on our visitors or guests is something of concern for us. We’re seeing an increase of disruptions from persons coming from the UK and Europe coming through the BA flights.”

He added that his ministry was monitoring the situation, but had “limited controls over the matter”.

“It’s more of a matter for the company itself,” he told the Compass in a recent interview. “I know BA themselves don’t want this and so they are doing everything they can to mitigate and reduce any interruptions.”

Bryan stressed that BA had been “a great partner”, and his ministry would do all it could to support the airline and “to help, if we can, reduce those interruptions”.

He added, “We hope that they stop happening as well, because it does give a reflection on the experience when [visitors] come to the Cayman Islands, and we definitely don’t want them stopping in another country.”

Asked about the flight interruptions, which some passengers have blamed on ageing aircraft, a British Airways spokesperson sent the following brief statement to the Compass: “The vast majority of our flights operating from Grand Cayman have done so without any delays. On the very few occasions delays have occurred, these have been the result of issues outside of our control, and we have apologized to our customers.”

The 777-200s which operate on the Cayman-Bahamas-London route, are among the oldest in the BA fleet. According to the airline’s website, it has 43 of these aircraft.

In one recent incident that left passengers spending the night in Nassau, an inbound BA flight to Cayman apparently had a crack in the cockpit windscreen and landed with emergency assistance in the Bahamas, according to social media posts from people on board the aircraft. Some of those passengers made it to Grand Cayman the next day on board a specially chartered Cayman Airways flight.

Less than a week later, another flight, this time from Nassau to London, was cancelled, with passengers complaining that it took them two days or even more to get to their destination.

Technical difficulties

In April, the Compass reported on a BA flight to Cayman that was delayed for two days in Nassau due to technical difficulties. On board that flight were at least five unaccompanied teens, who were initially told they needed to find their own accommodation.

When flights operate as normal, the stopover in Nassau lasts only about an hour, with passengers going to or coming from Cayman not being required to deplane during that stop.

These delays and issues with the only carrier that offers almost-direct flights to London – and by extension to other airports in Europe – are among the arguments in favour of extending the runway at Owen Roberts International Airport, Bryan says.

Once a runway extension is in place, he said, “we don’t have to rely only on one route in from the European markets. When we have the runway extension, this will allow us to have different potential airlines and different offerings and different types of planes to still get our guests here if one route does not work very well or has disruptions.”

The ministry has previously stated that British-based Virgin Atlantic had expressed interest in flying into Cayman, but difficulties had arisen over the length of the Owen Roberts runway.

An Airports Master Plan released last year, which outlines what is planned for Cayman’s airports over the next two decades, suggested that the Owen Roberts runway should be extended 1,900 feet into the North Sound, at a cost of $28 million.

Once extended, the runway would be able to accommodate fully-loaded ‘Code E’ planes, including Boeing 777s and 787s, and the A350 Airbus. BA’s 777-200 is also a Code E plane, but it lands and takes off in Cayman without a full load, as many passengers board or disembark in Nassau.