Tropic Ocean Airways made its inaugural scheduled flight to Nassau last week on Thursday and will fly between Ft. Lauderdale and Nassau four days per week, marking the beginning of more new airlift to The Bahamas.
The airline’s Chief Executive Officer Rob Ceravolo said he and his team have worked on this scheduled service for months and saw an opportunity to provide an affordable, scheduled alternative to flying through larger, crowded airports.
“What we do is we provide that private airline or private terminal experience on a per-seat basis, which makes it more affordable for the average person,” Ceravolo said.
“That’s really the key here, we’re very focused on that short range, lower cost model, but still providing that VIP private aviation experience.
“We’ve all been through the last 18 months which has been a challenge and airlift continues to become a challenge as things start to open up. For people who are traveling from Florida to The Bahamas, we’ve found it very difficult to fly commercial, so we saw it as a good opportunity for us to bring our service to Nassau.”
The inaugural Tropic Ocean flight left the Sheltair fixed-based operator (FBO) in Ft. Lauderdale and arrived at Nassau’s Odyssey Aviation.
Ceravolo said flying through FBOs cuts travel time in half and lowers the risk of exposure to COVID-19, as there is no travel through densely packed airports.
He said he that airlift to The Bahamas continues to be critical to the country’s success and has heard the cries of large resorts like Atlantis, Baha Mar and the newly opened Margaritaville for more airlift.
The company already services other islands like Abaco, Bimini and Andros. Now Tropic Ocean will fly to Nassau on Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday. Today’s flight is already sold out, Ceravolo said, adding that the company will add three more planes in the fall.
Tropic Ocean is also a partner in an aviation program that has sent and will send Bahamians to college to study aviation.
