Tourism & Cruises

Flights to Freeport and Marsh Harbour in Bahamas back after Hurricane Dorian

Silver Airways announced it will resume service from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Freeport and Marsh Harbor on Dec. 19, three months after Hurricane Dorian.
Silver Airways announced it will resume service from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Freeport and Marsh Harbor on Dec. 19, three months after Hurricane Dorian.

Buildings at the airport in Freeport, Grand Bahama, were hollowed and runways at the airport in Marsh Harbour on neighboring Abaco Islands completely flooded after Hurricane Dorian ripped through the islands in September.

Now, three months after the storm, international flights to the islands are ramping back up.

BahamasAir resumed service between Grand Bahama International Airport in Freeport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Sunday, and Leonard M. Thompson International Airport in Marsh Harbour and Palm Beach International Airport on Monday. Silver Airways announced it will resume service from Fort Lauderdale to Freeport and Marsh Harbour on Dec. 19.

BahamasAir will have flights between Freeport and Fort Lauderdale every day except Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and flights between Marsh Harbour and West Palm Beach on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Debris sits scattered in front of the Western Air Terminal at Grand Bahama International Airport on Thursday, September 5, 2019. The terminal was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian.
Debris sits scattered in front of the Western Air Terminal at Grand Bahama International Airport on Thursday, September 5, 2019. The terminal was destroyed by Hurricane Dorian. pportal@herald.com

Silver Airways will have daily flights between Fort Lauderdale and Freeport every day except Tuesdays, and two flights per day on Saturdays. Silver will have flights between Fort Lauderdale and Marsh Harbour Wednesdays though Sundays.

Silver said in a statement that the company anticipates returning to Treasure Cay in the Abacos in February 2020.

American Airlines plans to resume daily flights to Freeport and Marsh Harbour from Miami International Airport in February, a spokesperson said.

In the aftermath of the storm, the Bahamas tourism ministry used social media to promote destinations in its southern islands that remained unscathed. Now its slogan is “15 Islands Open for Business,” including the Grand Bahama island.

This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 5:47 PM.

Taylor Dolven
Miami Herald
Taylor Dolven is a business journalist who has covered the tourism industry at the Miami Herald since 2018. Her reporting has uncovered environmental violations of cruise companies, the impact of vacation rentals on affordable housing supply, safety concerns among pilots at MIA’s largest cargo airline and the hotel industry’s efforts to delay a law meant to protect workers from sexual harassment.
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