The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net

Hurricane repair costs at San Salvador airport have been pegged at just under $1 million, the Minister of Transport and Aviation said yesterday.

Glenys Hanna Martin said that airport had been identified as a Tier I facility in the Government’s efforts to overhaul airports across the Bahamas, due to its importance to the Club Med resort and rest of San Salvador’s economy.

Mrs Hanna Martin said the cost to repair damages at the airport were estimated at about $800,000, adding to costs associated with its overall redevelopment.

“San Salvador is just under $1 million; about $800,000 thousand-plus,” she explained. “The dilemma with San Salvador is that it is one of the Tier I airports, and the facility at present is inadequate because, of course, Club Med is there and there is a flight that comes in from France.

“They are struggling to manage the numbers in that facility, the processing and the security. We committed to building a new terminal. The problem is now we have an old terminal that needs to be repaired.

“We are taking advice on that. You have to re-establish what you have, otherwise there would be no airport there at all. You have to put almost $1 million to repair what you had, but what was there was already inadequate, so we are trying to see in a pragmatic way how we can best use those funds and integrate that into a redevelopment process. That’s what we are looking at right now.”    

Mrs Hanna Martin said $160 million is needed to overhaul the Bahamas’ 28 airports, although only six in the Family Islands have been identified as key ‘port of entry’ gateways that can be economically sustainable.

The Moss Town, North Eleuthera, San Salvador, Marsh Harbour and Bimini airports are also included in that group alongside San Salvador.

“We just finished Staniel Cay, and that was around $1 million,” Mrs Hanna Martin said. “That was way down in terms of priority, but we had a crisis there. The runway was deteriorated and it caused a crisis in the community in terms of their economy.

“Tier III airports would be like Mayaguana, which has the least volume of traffic but, at the same time, is critical to those communities. A Tier II airport would be the Deadman’s Cay Airport in Long Island, for instance.

“We have been in discussions with various groupings to explore a possible public-private partnership for the redevelopment of Tier I airports,” Mrs Hanna Martin added.

“We have talked to several different groupings to feel out the issue, but nothing has been finalised. We are also talking to Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) about that. That’s one of the methodologies being looked at because, right now, airports are being funded by the Public Treasury and $160 million is a lot of money to be looking to the Treasury for.

“For the Tier II and Tier III airports we’re unlikely to attract investment in those airports. They are likely to be subsidised  because of the social and economic significance to the communities. The state will do that, but you’re not likely to find investors to do that at this time.”