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| Left to right Chairman of the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority, Mr. Linkon Maynard, Surrey Paving's Contracts Manager, Mr. Shane Garvey, SCASPA Director Mr. Curtis Martin and St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister the Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas and members of the media. |
BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, FEBRUARY 9TH 2006 - St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister the Hon. Dr. Denzil L. Douglas is confident Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport expansion project will be completed in 10 months.
The multi-million dollar project involves the expansion of an aircraft parking apron to accommodate six wide-bodied jets at the same time, construction of a parallel taxiway and the new fuel farm by Surrey Paving and Aggregates of Jamaica.
"We are talking about having our airport ready in its modern expanded state to be able to receive the increased passengers and expected airlift into this country by January 2007," Prime Minister Douglas told reporters during a visit to the construction site earlier this week.
Chairman of the St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA), Mr. Linkon Maynard said the authority intends to "continously monitor the project to ensure its completion by the deadline."
Dr. Douglas, who is also Minister of Finance and Tourism said the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport is already considered one of the most modern facilities in the Caribbean region.
He disclosed that during discussions last week with representatives of the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development, they indicated their pleasure to come to St. Kitts and Nevis because they are so impressed with the airport.
"The cleanliness. It is well kept, it is efficient in terms of passenger movement and I think that once we are able to provide the extra parking, no airport in the Caribbean, with the exception of Trinidad will be able to touch us," Dr. Douglas boasted.
The expanded apron will be in addition to the present parking facilities which accommodate international and regional carriers including American Airlines, US Airways, Excel, American Eagle, Air Transit, North American, LIAT, Caribbean Sun, Caribbean Star and WINAIR.
The SCASPA Chairman said the new parking apron will allow the airport authority to accommodate up to 40 corporate jets. "We have had a problem in accommodating the corporate jets in the past because so many of them want to come to St. Kitts, but we have not been able to sustain the level of parking," said Mr. Maynard, emphasising "with the additional new parking, which is designed to provide parking for six wide-bodied aircraft and we would more than have enough space to accommodate those corporate jets."
Maynard referred to the present congestion, especially on weekends with several regional and international flights on the ground at the same time. "We have to do a lot of jostling in order to accommodate the Saturday traffic especially," he explained.
Prime Minister Douglas expressed surprise at the extent of the earth moving works done in such a short time and complimented the SCASPA Chairman, its Board of Directors and officials of the Jamaican company for the swift mobilisation process.
"We have been able to move directly into employing persons, several of whom were displaced by the closure of the sugar industry. Some people are still unemployed and need work and so we had signaled to this company the urgency of getting the work started and they have responded in kind," said the Prime Minister.
