Bahamasair

Is Bahamasair safe?

Yes, on its record. Bahamasair, the national airline of the Bahamas, has never had a fatal accident in the Aviation Safety Network records, and it has not written offHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary an aircraft in flight since 2007. It passes the IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audit that IATA membership requires, and the Bahamas holds FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary. What holds it back is age and strain: four Boeing 737-700s averaging more than 20 years, a small ATR fleet often short of engines, and a run of mechanical problems. We score it 78, just behind Caribbean Airlines and well below JetBlue, which flies many of the same routes from Florida and New York.

The 2007 Governor's Harbour gear failure

Bahamasair's only flying hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary in the last 20 years happened on 20 April 2007. Flight 353 from Nassau, a Dash 8-300 with 51 people on board, touched down on runway 15 at Governor's Harbour, Eleuthera, when the left main landing gear separated. The aircraft skidded along the runway and stopped. Nobody was hurt, but the 18-year-old turboprop was written off.

The Bahamian investigation traced it to an over-extended shock strut that let the torque links go over centre and break the cylinder in one cycle. The possible causes it listed were all in assembly and servicing: a missing or broken damper ring, wrong fluid, or a strut serviced short of oil. That makes it a maintenance event, and we count it in full, but it is 19 years old and the Dash 8s have since gone.

In March 2017 a tornado crossed Nassau airport before dawn and wrecked a parked ATR 72-600; its left main gear collapsed. Nobody was on board. Weather damage to a parked aircraft says nothing about how the airline flies, so we describe it but do not count it.

How old is Bahamasair's fleet?

Half new, half old. The jet side is four Boeing 737-700s with an average age of about 21 years, according to chief executive Tracy Cooper in February 2025, when he said the airline was looking at eight to ten Airbus A220s to replace them, subject to government funding. We found no firm order since. The 737-700 is not an outdated design, but aircraft of that age need more maintenance and their spare parts are getting harder to find.

The turboprop side is ATR 42-600s and 72-600s, bought new from the mid-2010s. Here the problem is availability rather than age. From August 2024 two ATRs waited months for engines to come back from Pratt & Whitney, and in December 2024 a third was out after a blown tyre while taxiing at Palm Beach, leaving two of five flying. A sixth, second-hand ATR 72 joined in 2025, yet from mid-August 2025 heavy maintenance left only three of the six flying, with a fourth due back in October (The Tribune). A thin fleet puts pressure on crews and engineers to keep aircraft moving, which is why we score the fleet 66.

Recent incidents

The most serious recent event came in August 2026. Flight UP136 from Marsh Harbour to Nassau could not lower its landing gear normally. The crew circled near the capital, used the alternate extension system and landed safely, nearly two hours after leaving Abaco. Passengers described a frightening approach, but no one was hurt.

A year earlier, on 31 August 2025, a first officer reported finding her captain vaping in the cockpit of an ATR before departure from Nassau. Both pilots were taken off the flight and the airline fired the captain, saying it would reinforce its cockpit management rules. In January 2024 an ATR returned to Crooked Island shortly after take-off with an engine defect.

Some events were not Bahamasair's doing. In May 2018 air traffic control pointed out a Silver Airways aircraft climbing nearby, and the Bahamasair crew reduced their climb; the Bahamian investigator rated the risk low. Taken together, the record scores 72 for incidents: no injuries, but more mechanical trouble than an airline of nine or ten aircraft should have.

Flying in the Bahamas

Most Bahamasair flights are short hops from Nassau to Family Islands such as Eleuthera, Exuma, Abaco, Andros and Crooked Island. Many of these airports have short runways, limited lighting and little or no air traffic service, and the whole country lies in the path of Atlantic hurricanes. Hurricane Dorian flattened much of Abaco in 2019, including Marsh Harbour's airport facilities. The weather is mostly kind and the terrain flat, which keeps the environment score at 68 rather than lower.

The alternative on many island routes is a small charter operator. In July 2026 a Flamingo Air Cessna 402 crashed in North Andros, killing all 10 on board, and the government grounded that airline while it investigated. On those routes, Bahamasair's two-pilot ATRs and IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary audits are the safer choice.

Tips for flying Bahamasair

• Leave slack in your plans. With so few aircraft, one grounding can cancel a day's flights to an island. Do not book a tight connection to an international flight in Nassau.
• Check hurricane forecasts from June to November. The National Hurricane Center gives several days' warning; rebook before the storm, not after.
• Pick Bahamasair or a large airline over small charters when a Family Island route offers the choice.

Our Bahamas page covers safety on the ground.

How we scored it

No fatal accident and a single in-flight hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary in 2007 give an accident score of 85, and FAA Category 1FAA IASAThe US FAA's check of whether a country's aviation regulator meets ICAO standards. Category 1 means it does; Category 2 means it does not.More in the glossary oversight with IOSAIOSAThe IATA Operational Safety Audit, an international audit of an airline's safety management and operations. Every IATA member must pass it.More in the glossary scores 80. The ageing 737s and stretched ATR fleet (66), recent mechanical incidents (72) and small island airports (68) pull it down. Overall 78.