Build It and They Will Come

Oct. 26, 2015
Easy access is needed to grow tourism. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines improves access to its tropical paradise with a $270 million international airport set to open in December

Running a resort in a Caribbean vacation destination when it lacks direct access to an international airport can be a logistical challenge.  Operating one on an island that requires two flights—a commercial airliner from Barbados and a prop jet from Union Island—just to get to it can be a logistical nightmare. Yet it is one Katie Rosiak, general manager of Palm Island Resort, wrestles with every day.

Rosiak explains not only do visitors to the tropical island situated on the southern tip of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines need reliable access to air travel but so do the workers on the island and the cargo planes transporting supplies to it. Ordering supplies to stock the resort’s restaurant and bar, 43 guest rooms and more requires careful preplanning as Rosiak points to the unpredictable timeframe for customs in Barbados to release provisions then the time it takes to transport them to the resort.

 This situation slows tourism industry development and growth on the lush island of Saint Vincent and the idyllic archipelago of 32 tropical islands and cays known as the Grenadines, according to Ralph Everard Gonsalves, the prime minister of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.  Though the region has long held a reputation as a prime location for diving, sailing and vacationing, limited access has driven tourists to other destinations with better air service.

When Gonsalves addressed a group gathered at Methodist Church Hall years before work began in earnest on an international airport for the region, he was asked two questions: Does Saint Vincent and the Grenadines really need an international airport? And if we need one, can we afford one? He responded with “The requisites of economic diversification and regional and international competitiveness demand an international airport.”

He added to this statement in August with, “If you want to have a dramatic lifting of tourism and investments in hotels and allied businesses, you need to have access.”

The year was 2005 when Gonsalves made the first remark, and his comment started the region on a journey that nears completion today. Soon—hopefully by year’s end—crews will finish work on a new $275 million international airport on 400 acres of land with a 9,000 foot runway designed to accommodate jets as large as a Boeing 747. The 135,000-square-feet terminal is designed to handle up to 1.5 million passengers per year.

“This is a game changer. It allows us to do business as our sister islands do business,” states Dr. Rudy Matthias, CEO of the International Airport Development Company Limited (IADC), the organization formed to help facilitate the funding, construction and management of a new international airport in Argyle on the island of Saint Vincent.

Take a Leap          

Saint Vincent already had an airport. ET Joshua Airport, once known as Arnos Vale Airport, located in Arnose Vale on Saint Vincent Island, has served as the region’s gateway for years. However, this airport’s 4,000-foot runway wasn’t long enough to accept commercial jet traffic and extending it wasn’t possible—there were too many natural obstacles in the way. “There was no future in expanding ET Joshua; we had to find a different site,” Matthias says.

Technical studies recommended two alternative sites on Saint Vincent—one in an area called Kitchen on the south eastern side of the island and the other in Argyle on its eastern side. On August 8, 2005, Gonsalves selected Argyle as the location of choice. He notes this was the more cost effective of the two options.

Choosing a site to build on was the easy part, however. It takes a lot more than a site to get an airport built on a small and financially constrained island. According to Matthias, the main stumbling block has always been financing. The nation could not support the airport development on its own nor could it borrow the money for a new airport because it would have made its debt ratio too high, a risky proposition that would have left the country with little money for other needed projects.

“For 50 years, everyone talked about an international airport but no one could conceive how it could be done,” says Gonsalves. “But I’ve never seen anyone cross a chasm in baby steps; sometimes you have to take a leap.”

As the prime minister since 2001, Gonsalves took that leap and rallied friends in governments across the globe to put together a creative financing package that included grants and soft loans. “I felt that if President George Bush could put together a coalition to bomb Baghdad, I could put together a coalition to help build an airport in Argyle, which is what I did,” he says.

His work led to aid from friendly countries, dubbed by Gonsalves as the “Coalition of the Willing,” including Cuba, which supplied engineering and technicians; Venezuela, Trinidad, Tobago, Mexico, Libya, Georgia, Iran, Austria, Turkey, Malaysia, Taiwan, China and the United States. Saint Vincent also sold state land elsewhere to purchase airport land and existing properties on that land.

“We had to move three mountains, valleys, a church, cemeteries and 135 homes to create this airport,” Matthias explains.

Breaking Ground

The government held a groundbreaking ceremony on July 13, 2008, and officially began moving earth on August, 13, 2008; a fitting date says Gonsalves given that it’s Fidel Castro’s birthday and Cuba is one of the main supporters of this development.

Since then construction crews have been a common sight in Argyle. Originally slated for completion in 2014, the work has been hampered by weather and will not be complete till year’s end. The region gets 65 inches of rain a year, and as Matthias states, “Pavement and construction work is a challenge because of the weather. Asphalt and rain are not a good mix.”

The passenger terminal and electrical substation were designed by Taiwanese firm, CEDI Engineering Consultants Inc., while another Tawainese firm, Overseas Engineering and Construction Company Ltd. secured the contract to construct these buildings. Two smaller buildings—the airport control tower and the firefighting and rescue station—are complete while the cargo terminal building is in process right now.

Franco Construction built the control tower base while Aeronav, a Candian company, assembled the control cabin and shipped it to Saint Vincent. INNOTECH of Barbados constructed the ARFF facility, which will house up to four fire tenders. The airport’s 40 firefighters attended training at DFW Airport Fire Training Research Center.

The passenger building is near completion and workers are currently installing the equipment needed to make the airport operational. A baggage handling system, shipped from New Zealand, was recently installed. It includes five conveyor belts: two large conveyor belts in the arrivals hall, one large conveyor belt in the check-in area, and two small belts in the domestic terminal, one outbound and one inbound.

The airport also features two jet bridges in the international terminal to service wide body aircraft. “Because we get a lot of rain, the bridges were a feature we needed to keep passengers dry,” says Matthias. “The building is designed to accommodate the jet bridges.”

Concessions and retail at ET Joshua consists of a duty-free shop and a tiny retail outlet selling a small selection of snacks and tschotchkes. The new airport will have 7,000 square feet of shopping space, half of which will be allocated to duty-free shops. It will also have a roof top patio where passengers can grab beer, coffee or some grub. The IADC is currently negotiating contracts on the space, and its goal is to have a significant portion of the airport’s revenue come from these shops to keep airline ticket costs low. Matthias jokes he’d like to see 95 percent of the airport’s revenue come from these shops.

The airport is also in talks with airlines, and will open for general aviation traffic first until commercial service comes online. The IADC has been in contract with airlines for the past three years, but the airlines need to see a completed facility and a management team in place before they will commit to bringing routes to Saint Vincent, states Gonsalves.

As Green as the Water is Blue

“This will be the most energy efficient airport in the Caribbean,” says Glenn Beach,CEO of the SVG Tourism Authority for StVincent and the Grenadines.

Part of the project includes a 218 kVa solar energy farm, which will initially generate approximately 35 percent of the airport’s solar light and air-conditioning needs.

 “It will be the first part of a wider program of power generation to meet the needs of the airport at peak demand and full operation and it is expected that at full generation any excess electricity will be made available through the grid to the rest of Saint Vincent,” reported Ambassador Lorne McDonnough, the CEO of the CARICOM Development Fund which helped fund the project. “The CDF is promoting greening, or environmentally friendly energy projects in the region and is striving to establish the plant at Argyle as a flagship for the initiative.”

This will make St Vincent’s Argyle the second airport in the region to be solar powered, following the debut of the solar farm at St Kitts’ Robert L Bradshaw International Airport.

Gonsalves underscores the importance of this saying, “If we have cheaper energy, we can better compete.” He notes it will take approximately 17 years for the solar energy plant to completely pay for itself.

The airport also employed green initiatives in the construction by establishing asphalt and concrete batching plants on the eastern side. These plants provided quick asphalt delivery and hydraulic concrete for pavement on the airport runway and aprons. “All of the material used in the asphalt came from here,” Matthias says. “We crushed it on site and used it here.”

 Build It and They will Come

The airport, which will employ 150 to 200 people not including concessions/retail or airline employees, is designed to accommodate up to 1.5 million passengers a year. Currently, 100,000 tourists pass through the region annually, but within five years Gonsalves predicts that number will climb to 300,000+.  When questioned as to whether the airport is oversized, Gonsalves says it boils down to the old chicken and the egg argument. He says to grow tourism in the region, they first need the infrastructure—and that starts with an amply sized, modern airport.

“The airport is not built for today, tomorrow, this year or next year, it’s built for the future,” he explains.

The beauty of the airport’s current location is that it can easily accommodate future growth as well, Matthias adds. “If we reach a point in the future where we can’t handle the traffic and have backlog problems, we can expand,” he says.

The next step in the drive to beef up tourism includes revamping the ET Joshua Airport site. The airport will be razed and Gonsalves plans to construct a modern city in its place. A primary part of this development is a major medical facility that will include oncology, cardiac and lifestyle diseases centers. The government also hopes to include a conference facility and golf course in the years to come.

Saint Vincent currently is working to draw new hotels into the area. The only all inclusive resort that exists on the island today is Buccament Bay Resort, a five-star luxury resort on the island. Gonsalves hopes that changes once the airport becomes operational. Currently the island is in talks with two major hotel chains. “We will have two hotel chains coming in, God willing,” he says.

“You need a vision, then you need to analyze it and find ways to connect it all together,” Gonsalves says. “Education, medical tourism, vacation traffic—all of these things need a good international airport.”