Bermuda’s growing airline, BermudAir, which was founded in 2023 by CEO Adam Scott, looked to Westchester County Airport (airport designator HPN) as a good entry point for the New York Metro area and started nonstop service between HPN and Bermuda on August 23, 2023. As the airline expanded, adding two more aircraft to its original fleet of two, it expanded the airports it served and in October of this year announced that it would be adding service at Newark International Airport and LaGuardia. At the same time, it announced that as of Oct. 25, it would no longer serve HPN.
It didn’t take long for the airline to make a course correction and announce that it would continue the Westchester connection, creating what it called the “New York Triangle” with Westchester, LaGuardia and Newark, a play on the infamous “Bermuda Triangle.”
“Westchester is my favorite spot on our destination map,” Scott told Westfair’s Westchester County Business Journal. “I’ve always been enamored of Westchester because of the ease and convenience of the airport. Westchester is our most important market from our frequent flyer perspective.”
Scott said that there are a number of people in Westchester and up into Connecticut who have interests in Bermuda, either business or personal, and became regular users of the airline.
“We have a number of passengers from Westchester who have flown with us 50, 60, 70 times,” Scott said. “A lot of people do commute between Westchester and Bermuda. Its quicker to get sometimes from Westchester to Bermuda than to get from Westchester to JFK or LaGuardia.”
Scott described a Founders Club for the airline that he said is strictly limited to 100 members.
“They’re really the first group that threw their full support behind us and pre-purchased a great deal of capacity,” Scott said. “More than half of those Founders members are based in Westchester County and the surrounding areas. It’s an amazing bridge that we have between Westchester and Bermuda.”
Scott said that in preserving the Westchester-Bermuda route they’re currently operating three times a week, on Tuesdays Thursdays and Sundays. The flights are scheduled to take two hours.
Scott described a current promotion offering free airfare between Westchester, LaGuardia and Newark for travelers who book a total vacation package through the airline.
“Part of our commitment and my personal commitment to the island is to show what a fantastic destination Bermuda is and how accessible it is,” Scott said. “We curate travel packages putting together hotels and well as the flights. We also offer access to some of the golf courses. We have seven world-class golf courses and offer the ability to book packages that include golf and other activities on the island.”
Scott said that he is a native of Canada who is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science, worked in finance for JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs and lived in Europe and the U.S. before taking up residency in Bermuda.
“Starting a business in such a capital intensive and regulatory heavy industry can be daunting, but that being said its also the most rewarding experience I’ve had,” Scott said. “When we fly passengers and they see what we offer on the aircraft, the hospitality of Bermuda and her people, it’s hugely rewarding. We started with only two aircraft. Now we have four aircraft. We’ve had zero flight cancellations in the past five months as a result of investing heavily in our fleet.”
BermudAir started with two Embraer E175 twin-jet aircraft flying three direct routes between Bermuda L.F. Wade International Airport (BDA) and Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) and Westchester County Airport (HPN). It now has added two Embraer 190AR-E1 with 96 passenger configurations. They have 2-by-2 seating with 1-by-1 seating in business class.
According to 2024 statistics, Bermuda had 743,490 visitors, 203,080 of whom arrived by air. Just under 33% of the visitors arriving by air came from New York.
“We’re driven by economics, of course, and Bermuda is a fairly small island but it’s a robust economy with leisure business and returning friends and family traffic but the critical thing for us is to have the right sized aircraft for the markets in which we operate and to operate at the right frequency for the market. The fact that the Embraer airplanes have two-by-two seating in economy and one-by-one in business makes the aircraft really comfortable and a better experience at so many levels.”
Scott said that they have just launched AnguillAir, which will fly to Anguilla from Boston, Newark, and Baltimore. There also will be a connection to the island of St. Barts.
“We’ll continue to grow our fleets,” Scott said. “As we continue to grow we’ll be able to offer more frequency. We’ll also in a longer term look at other islands as well that we can service just as we are with Bermuda and will be with Anguilla.”
