BermudAir (2T, Bermuda) has applied for permission from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to fly from Bermuda to three US cities in Florida, Massachusetts and New York, starting with two leased ERJ 170-200STDs, a May 5 regulatory filing reveals.
Consistent with the UK-US Open Skies agreement, Bermudair intends to start operating scheduled services as soon as it is fully approved to do so. The company is in the process of obtaining a Bermuda air operator's certificate (AOC), according to letters of confirmation attached to its application from Bermuda Transport Minister Wayne L. Furbert and the Bermuda Civil Aviation Authority.
It plans a scheduled six-days-a-week twice-daily passenger service between Bermuda and White Plains, and a six-day-a-week once-daily passenger service between Bermuda and Boston and Fort Lauderdale International, using 30 premium seat E175s: VQ-BLU (msn 17000344) and VQ-BLW (msn 17000351) both leased from Ireland's Tiradentes Portfolio C Limited. The company does not contemplate any wet-leases but may expand its fleet in the near future.
Formally, Bermudair has applied for exemption authority and a foreign air carrier permit to conduct international scheduled and charter flights ferrying passengers, property and mail.
According to its application, the private company was registered in Bermuda on January 3, 2023. It is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda. Its main base of operations L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda.
Embraer Aircraft Engineering Services will provide maintenance services to Bermudair, which will also enter into appropriate contracts in the US for line maintenance of its aircraft used for US operations as necessary.
Bermudair's traffic estimates for the proposed US operations, based on 75% load factors, foresee 22,000 passenger segments to Westchester County, 13,000 to Boston, and 13,000 to Fort Lauderdale. Based on the average market fare between USD750 and USD900, Bermudair projects its revenue for the first year of the US operations will be USD38.7 million.
US/Canadian citizen Adam Scott is listed as Chief Executive Officer and 50% shareholder of the company. The remaining ownership is divided between Bermuda's A One Limited (Gibbons family), UK citizen Peter Hughes, Bermudian Brian M. O'Hara, and US companies Sargasso Sea Holdings, LLC. and H/A Private Equity Management 2022 LLC.
Scott's name last cropped up as the CEO of UK startup Odyssey Airlines (London City), which, in 2014 used crowdfunding to raise GBP1 million pounds (USD1.6 million at the time) with the intention to start a business-class-only service between London City and New York JFK. Odyssey Airlines' former Chief Financial Officer John Bavister, former Chief Information Officer George Henderson and former Chief Commercial Officer Titus Johnson now hold similar positions at Bermudair.
Odyssey Airlines' plan never materialised. However, according to UK company records, the company remains a going concern. According to a filing to Companies House on August 1, 2022, the company had adequate resources to stay operational for another 12 months despite posting losses of GBP1.14 million (USD1.43 million) in 2021 and GBP1.15 million (USD1.45 million) in 2022. It had no cash at hand or in the bank but equity of GBP8.2 million (USD10.3 million) in 2022. Some USD2.51 million of existing financial arrangements were due to be repaid on December 31, 2020, but the company was unable to meet the repayments on time. It was renegotiating payment arrangements but was depending on securing further funding to continue in business as a going concern.
ch-aviation has reached out to Scott for comment.
