Basseterre, St.Kitts (July 23rd 2013):- Leader of the People’s Labour Party and former Senior Minister Dr. Timothy Harris and Deputy Leader of the People’s Action Movement Hon. Eugene Hamilton have jointly expressed concern over what seems to be a recurring problem at the RL Bradshaw Airport.
The International Airport has been forced to shut down at evenings due to inadequate lighting on the runway. On Tuesday evening last week Dr. Harris was among a number of passengers travelling to St. Kitts who had to be diverted to St. Maarten. According to Harris the passengers were told the plane could not land because there was “NO LIGHTS”. A similar occurrence took place on Wednesday evening.
Dr. Harris indicated that the situation shows the government’s inability to properly manage our country’s most important facilities. Dr. Harris lamented, “The recent “shut-downs” of the RLB Airport in my view highlights the inadequacy, inefficiency of this government and its inability to properly manage our countries resources and facilities.
It is unfathomable to citizens that while our government can find $42 million from the SIDF to effectively bailout a foreign investor in our tourism industry, that the center or main conduit and facilitator of our tourism product, the Airport , is so under-resourced and ineffectively maintained that it is forced to shut down at nights due to inadequate lighting. Many of our flights come in at night.
I was on one such flight last week Monday and I was disappointed that incidents like this one continues to occur at RLB. How can it be justified that a government finds $42 million to help out a foreign investor while the airport seems not to have the the proper resources necessary to have and maintain adequate lighting.”
Hon. Eugene Hamilton expressed concern as well and like Dr. Harris pointed his finger directly at the government and blamed their poor decision making for the situation experienced during the course of the past week.
The situation of frustration and inconvenience experienced by passengers stranded and delayed at our airport because of poor resource provision at our airport is regrettable.
SCASPA issued a statement regarding the recent incidents. The statement read in part “The St. Christopher Air and Sea Ports Authority (SCASPA) closed its night flight operations at the Robert L. Bradshaw International Airport to incoming and outgoing flights on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, July 16 and 17. This decision was taken after experiencing technical difficulties with the existing runway lighting mechanism on Tuesday evening, which resulted in the runway light failure.
Both Dr Harris and Hamilton stated that the incoming Unity government is committed to improving the maintenance and efficiency of all major government facilities including the RLB Airport, the Sea Port, our Schools and other government buildings.
*************************
DISCLAIMER
This article was posted in its entirety as received by SKNVibes.com. This media house does not correct any spelling or grammatical error within press releases and commentaries. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of SKNVibes.com, its sponsors or advertisers
.jpg)