The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

THE Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) is primed to become the most “modern and progressive” facility of its kind in the region, its chief executive yesterday revealing that the expansion project’s Phase III was set to be completed ahead of schedule.

Vernice Walkine, head of the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD), who was a panellist at a CIBC FirstCaribbean International Conference, ‘Public Private Partnerships in Infrastructure Development and Financing’, told Tribune Business: “It was always intended to be opened by November 20, and we believe that we will beat that date.

“I can’t say by how much, but we will definitely beat that date. We’re very happy that we have built in enough slack, if you will, allowing weather delays if any, hurricanes and tropical storms, and we will maintain our schedule.

“We believe that at the end of the day, we will beat that schedule. It’s been going very well. There have been no work interruptions. We are on budget. It’s actually very exciting, because the whole envelope is pretty well closed now, so it’s weather proof and a lot of the work is being done on the inside.”

Ms Walkine added of the new domestic arrivals and departures, and international departures, terminal: “The frame has already been put in, mostly at night. But then on the inside, it’s really taking shape. It looks like it’s almost done; it’s incredible how far along we are with that particular project.

“We are really excited about it because I do believe that this particular terminal is go to be the best, the best in terms of not only its functionality but its design and layout, and the art, which is going to be unique and representative of the country.

“We are really excited that we will be able, in the next few months, to present to the Bahamian public a terminal they can be proud of, and also travellers to non-US destinations will have a seamless experience as well.”

Stage III of LPIA – the final stage of the $409.5 million expansion project – calls for the construction of the domestic and international check-in hall and domestic arrival facility.

“The focus for us going forward is going to be how we maintain those facilities as new conditioned, and how we make sure that as people use those facilities they enjoy the experience, they can relax and spend money and really engage with the facility,” Ms Walkine said.

“We are going to improve access to social media to communicate more with our passengers about certain specials, deals, events, activities, those kinds of things.

“We are going to do some things differently. I think airports all over the world are evolving and becoming not just places where planes take off and land, but where people end up having to spend time, and they want to enjoy that experience. I think this airport will unquestionably be the most modern and progressive airport in the entire region.”

Ms Walkine said NAD did not anticipate any pre-clearance queue issues this summer. “The issues we had with that occurred last July and August, which tend to be peak travel months, and since that time a few things have happened,” she added.

“The US government has given us additional officers, so we have more officers at US Customs and Border Control. We didn’t have that issue over Christmas, and we don’t anticipate problems this summer either because there are more officers in place, and we have our concierge staff that help to manage the queue as well, and so that’s been very helpful.

“More recently we have had some issues with Bahamas Immigration, with the queues being long in there, and Minister Mitchell made a commitment to have the necessary manpower assigned during peak days and peak hours, and that has worked exceptionally well.

“We’re grateful to him for that, and so with the support of the USand the Bahamas Immigration Department we have been able to keep the queue times down to a pretty decent level, which is 30 minutes, maybe 40 minutes maximum. When you get beyond 40 minutes it starts to get really uncomfortable, so we have been working hard to keep it at a reasonable level,” said Ms Walkine.