Airport expansion or relocation has been a red button issue for tourism bodies for some time.
Brian Krug is a board member for the Cayman Islands Tourism Association, the private body that represents the interests of around 250 tourism and tourism-related businesses. He also serves as Chairman of the Airport Operators Committee.
“Something needs to be done at the airport, for certain. Everyone that has travelled on the weekend has seen that there are issues with backup [congestion]. What are we going to do in the short term,” he queried.
“We have new hotels coming online probably within two years, there’s the Shetty hospital and Enterprise City. All these things are building up and our facility, as it stands now, will not be adequate. If we do not do something, we will be in trouble.”
One aspect that is often discussed is the issue of the length of the runway, which at 7,018 feet in length and 150 wide is considered to be on the small side for the larger planes. The issue is not that they can land – judicious use of brakes can assist that – but that a fully-loaded, fully-fuelled larger plane simply does not have the run-up needed to take off.
“There are some talking about expansion of the runway and with that comes controversy. If you expand it that will be expensive and most likely have to go into the sea, at least partially.
“The only aeroplane that can do a non-stop flight to Europe is the 767, which they are slowly phasing out, or larger aircraft [such as the A330, A340 and 777]. You have to put 230 people on that 767 plane for it to make sense. But can we fill that plane? We are not all-inclusive like other destinations. It is something to consider,” said Mr. Krug.
Retro-fitting
In the meantime, the facilities that exist in terms of the departure and arrivals building could be possibly retrofitted to increase usable area, he said, including building upwards, which is structurally possible at the current footprint, he noted.
“There are probably as many plans and different opinions [on how to expand the airport] as you can think of. We need more space for arrival and departure. It is imperative that when people get off the plane they do not have to wait outside in the sun or rain and can get inside the building quickly.
“My personal opinion is that this is of utmost importance. We have to improve on the first impression and the last impression,” said Mr. Krug.
Both the Cayman Islands Tourism Assocaition and the Department of Tourism aim to increase stayover visitation, which assists many aspects of the economy. If this is achieved, then passenger movements will of course increase.
“We all want more people. There’s more car rentals, restaurants, we will have hotels. There are people out there starving for business right now. Cayman is popular, it’s hot. JetBlue decided they wanted to come here. That was a great sign.
“More people means more business. I run a car rental company and more people means I buy more gas, more tyres, money flows and wheels keep turning. We get very excited when more visitors come and there is a knock-down effect for everybody,” concluded Mr. Krug.
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