Bahamas Out Island News

Second-year student Alan Murphy is excited about his first trip to The Bahamas, however the Irish native and his traveling companions are not the usual type of visitor.

"Flying into The Bahamas, I've never done anything like that before," the pilot-in-training told Guardian Business. "It gives me a good confident boost now to say I have landed at an international airport."

He is just one of scores of European pilots who were a part of the first of many pilot training runs into The Bahamas from the Pilot Training College of Ireland.

Guardian Business understands the exercise is all a part of a Ministry of Tourism and Aviation plan to increase the number of private air crafts coming into the country.

It's a symbiotic relationship, said Ciaran Doyle, the global director of the school, which gives the students a chance to learn new things and the country a chance to benefit from the exposure.

"I think your government is trying to promote it as a private pilot location," he said. "For us to be able to say we can take a group of new student pilots who've only recently qualified and they've flied over here safely, I think it's an example to say look how easy it is to come here. ...

"It was my first international cross country ever," he said, " and it was like flying into any major airport, except my breath was taken away by all the scenery down at the water."