As government moves ahead with four airport-related projects on Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac, a recommendation to build a new airport and runway on Little Cayman has been put on hold.
Tourism and airport officials on 30 May announced plans for four multi-million projects as part of a new 20-year Airports Master Plan, but a replacement for Little Cayman’s Edward Bodden Airfield was not among them – much to the relief of some of the island’s residents.
Canadian design consultancy firm Stantec, which was hired to help draft the master plan, had highlighted an urgent need to address the Little Cayman aerodrome, which they noted is currently unlicensed, is located on privately owned land, and does not meet international safety regulations. The airport, near Blossom Village, is only allowed to operate under an ‘exemption of airworthiness’ granted by the Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands.
Philip Van Manen, a Stantec aviation planning and development consultant, told attendees at one of the public meetings during the consultation process in November last year, that the existing airport “does not meet any standards” and was, in his view, “a dangerous place to land a public-paying, scheduled air service”.
Financial constraints
Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, speaking at a press briefing to announce the airport projects on 30 May, said Little Cayman was “unfortunately” not included in the latest airport-related projects the government plans to undertake “because of the financial position we’re in”.
However, he added, government “recognises the difficulties with Little Cayman”, including that it does not meet safety or security requirements and the reluctance of the islands’ residents to change anything that may impact its tranquility and unique character.
“It’s a very sensitive one,” Bryan said. “The people of Little Cayman are adamant they don’t want it to be overdeveloped or any major changes to their way of life, but then that conflicts with our security requirements that are there for the airport.”
He said even though Little Cayman is not included in the outline business cases for the four projects that were approved by Cabinet on 23 May, a new airport for the island was included in the recommendations in the master plan. He added that government was committed to investing in a new location for the aerodrome and carrying out an environmental impact assessment on the site.
Government plans to include money for an environmental impact assessment on the proposed new site in its next budget, Bryan said.
“With that commitment, the [Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands] has given us an assurance to continue with this exemption. Because without a commitment to resolving the problems, they can no longer continue with the exemptions,” he said.
While he did not put a figure on the proposed new airport, Bryan stated that it would be a “rather expensive and costly exercise” that “would never be able to recoup the cost” because it would not be able to handle the level of air traffic necessary to do that.
A copy of the latest master plan had not been released by press time, but a 2014 master plan, which also addressed the issue of building a new airport on Little Cayman, estimated the cost to be more than $20 million at the time.
Currently, about 30,000 passengers a year travel to Little Cayman. The Stantec consultants estimated that, within 20 years, that number is likely to grow to 40,000 a year.
Bryan said the first step to building a new airport on Little Cayman would be an environmental impact assessment of the proposed site, followed by “development stages in conjunction with consultations with the good people of Little Cayman to make sure their lives are not disrupted in any way”.
‘Unique airport’
Peter Quilliam, president of the Sister Islands Tourism Association, said he was “very happy” that government was moving ahead with upgrades to both international airports “and am equally thrilled that Little Cayman’s unique airport will be left as is for now”.
At a public meeting last year with Ministry of Tourism officials and consultants working on the Airports Master Plan, residents of Little Cayman expressed their concerns about the creation of a new airport and longer runway on the island, saying this would likely lead to larger planes arriving and more development of resorts and other properties on the 10-square- mile island.
Quilliam told the Compass, “Preserving the lifestyle and experience that only Little Cayman can deliver is a quintessential part of the ‘Cayman tourism product’. Leveraging off of the additional infrastructure invested in the two other airports, along with the additional airlift capacity the third Twin Otter provides, will ensure that the Little Cayman experience is enjoyed by many more for years to come – without the need to clear large areas of land for a new airport.”
A site for a new airport on government-owned land, just over a mile northeast of the existing aerodrome, was identified on Little Cayman several years ago, and some ground clearing was carried out at the time.
Little Cayman’s ‘terminal’ consists on a single-storey building, with a check-in desk and a waiting room, with a dedicated garage next door that houses a fire engine. Planes that land on the 3,275-foot-long and 35-foot-wide runway must cross a road to access the airport building.
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