BermudAir Bets Big Beyond Bermuda

MIAMI—Less than three years after launching as Bermuda’s first homegrown airline, startup BermudAir is making an ambitious bet that its future lies far beyond the North Atlantic island.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Aviation Festival Americas conference in Miami on June 4, BermudAir founder and CEO Adam Scott and newly appointed CCO John Pepper outlined a rapidly expanding strategy built around underserved leisure markets, fifth freedom flying and a premium leisure model they believe can connect dozens of overlooked city pairs across the Caribbean and Central America.

During the conference, the carrier unveiled a sweeping winter expansion that adds Turks and Caicos, Belize and Guatemala City alongside major growth to Anguilla. Many of the routes bypass Bermuda entirely, linking US cities such as Boston, Raleigh-Durham, Fort Lauderdale and the St. Petersburg-Clearwater-Tampa Bay region directly with Caribbean destinations.

For Scott, the strategy grew directly out of Bermuda’s biggest structural challenge: seasonality. “We’re literally moving capacity to deal with the seasonality challenges that we have in Bermuda,” Scott said. The breakthrough came last winter with Anguilla, where BermudAir used spare winter aircraft capacity to launch fifth freedom operations from the US to the Caribbean. “Anguilla has been very successful for us with only the first season under our belts,” Scott said. The airline is now searching for other niches along the same model.

Pepper, who joined BermudAir from Allegiant Air, described the model as carefully matching seasonal demand curves across different leisure markets. Belize, for example, performs heavily in the first quarter from northern US markets, while Bermuda peaks in summer. “Bermuda is highly seasonal,” Pepper said. “We’ve got to sort of match that capacity with that demand.”

The strategy also leans heavily into underserved secondary airports, borrowing selectively from Allegiant’s playbook while layering in a more premium onboard product. BermudAir is moving Orlando operations from Orlando International Airport to Orlando Sanford while also building around airports such as Westchester County near New York City and the St. Petersburg-Clearwater-Tampa Bay region. “It’s not just about cost,” Pepper said. “Sanford is closer to the wealthier suburbs of Orlando.”

At the same time, operating economics remains critical for a small airline with only four aircraft in service and a fifth arriving later this year. Pepper acknowledged the challenges of maintaining reliability with such a small fleet, noting a dedicated spare aircraft would currently represent nearly 20% additional fixed cost. “It is really, really difficult to be small,” Pepper acknowledged.

Even so, BermudAir believes scale will come quickly. Scott outlined plans to grow from five aircraft next year to roughly 20 aircraft within five years, eventually supporting transatlantic flying to Europe, particularly London. Pepper suggested aircraft like the Airbus A220 could eventually fit BermudAir’s longer-term network strategy, though the airline stopped short of identifying a specific fleet plan. BermudAir is currently completing a transition from Embraer E175s to an all E190 fleet while also moving ahead with plans for a dedicated freighter operation.

The E190s are in a three-class configuration, combining basic economy style fares with premium seating and high margin vacation packages. “The best thing we can do is have a three-class cabin that appeals to both ends,” Pepper said.

BermudAir sees hotels and destination partnerships as essential to route economics, particularly as luxury hotel development accelerates in markets like Belize and Anguilla. “A package is effectively up to $40 in profit per passenger that really has no additional cost,” Pepper said.

Support from tourism boards, airports and governments has also become critical as BermudAir enters smaller Caribbean and Central American markets. Scott described those partnerships as essential risk sharing arrangements rather than simple incentive programs, while Pepper noted some destinations were investing heavily in airport infrastructure and tourism development to support the airline’s expansion.