Many small countries throughout the world are in possession of an airline company and the small Caribbean country of the Bahamas is no different. Headquartered in the country’s capital city of Nassau, Bahamasair is the national airline of the Bahamas and as such, it shares the same logo as the current logo of the whole of the Bahamas.

The airline operates services domestically to fifteen destinations throughout the Bahamas, as well as regional services to Havana and international flights to four cities across the nearby American state of Florida. The main base of the company is at the Lynden Pindling International Airport.
Bahamasair has unusual origins, starting up after its inception during the 1970s oil crisis. Up until this point in time, the Bahamas had been serviced by international flights from several major airlines. This was not to last however, and soon into 1970, British Airways had cancelled their flight routes to the country. The Bahamian government was, needless to say, alarmed by this turn of events, and began to suspect that other international airlines would follow suit. This suspicion was not unfounded and proved to be correct since all international flights from major airlines were stopped by 1973. The government then made the decision to establish its own airline in order to ensure the continuous economic gains provided by the country’s tourism industry and thus, Bahamasair was created and began operations on the 7th of June in 1973.

The company was initially faced with considerable setbacks caused by the inexperience of the airline’s administrative division, such as poor company structure, economic shape and maintenance facilities. Soon after however, the company acquired brand new Boeing 737s which allowed for international service flights that began in 1972 by flying to Tampa in Florida. After this, other Floridian cities where steadily added to the airline’s destinations, increasing international tourism to the country. Simultaneously, the airline began to see an increase in domestic flights that caused the airline to grow financially at a large rate.

Nowadays other companies such as Pan Am Airlines offer flights into the Bahamas, but the government’s own company continues to deal with the majority of air traffic coming into the country from elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, the airline still maintains its hold as the dominant figure in the domestic flight service market of the Bahamas, allowing citizens and tourists alike to travel around the country by more efficient means than that of conventional overland travel.