Tough economic times have forced Sky Bahamas to shut down its operations at its Blake Road offices and relocate to the Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA), Sky Bahamas CEO Captain Randy Butler confirmed recently.

Sky Bahamas currently rents two units in the Blake Road Plaza, but Captain Butler said the company has decided to relocate as a cost-saving measure.

The company has experienced a steady loss in business this year and as a result has begun a restructuring phase including slashing a significant amount of its workforce.

Sky Bahamas is also in the midst of a dispute with the Bahamas Pilots Alliance (BPA) over its terminating of 10 pilots last week.

The BPA, claiming that Sky Bahamas is attempting to avoid meeting its legal obligation to pay those pilots their severance packages instead choosing to furlough them, has since filed a trade dispute.

But Captain Butler insisted that the airline intended to reengage the pilots once the company’s finances improved.

The airline’s decision to lay off the pilots came after the men staged an alleged sick-out over a three day period early last week.

While he did not blame the sickout entirely for the company’s decline, Captain Butler maintained that the actions of the pilots “accelerated an already bad situation.”

An additional 11 non-technical employees were laid-off Monday and Captain Butler explained that even more employees would face the same fate.

He said the move to the airport is an attempt to restructure the company’s finances.

“This building we rent from the Providence Fund for about $5,600 per month,” he said. “This week we had to decide to give this up. We have an office space in the US Terminal and since we have reduced our US routes, we will now utilise parts of that instead of giving that up and it’s a little cheaper.

“And we’re going to go to the Domestic Terminal where we are required to have a certain amount of space and we’re going to use that.”

Despite the current financial troubles the company faces, Captain Butler remained positive that Sky Bahamas will survive this period and he said at that time the company hopes to reengage many of its workers.

He also noted that ensuring a positive morale among the remaining staff is a priority of the company.

“There are some challenges with the morale,” he said. “We have to work with folks and that morale is related to how do we continue to build this airline to be the preferred airline which is our vision. But we are a resilient group of people.”

Captain Butler said Sky Bahamas expects to relocate its two offices to LPIA sometime this week.