The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

Completing Grand Bahama International Airport's sale to the Government and development of a new hospital are among the top three short-term priorities identified for Freeport's revival.

The Grand Bahama Port Authority (GBPA) launched Revitalization and Economic Expansion of Freeport (REEF), in proposals unveiled yesterday for public comment and feedback, signalled the desire of the airport's owners to sell the Hurricane Dorian-ravaged facility to the Government for a "peppercorn" price.

With the GBPA, the driving force behind the committee, ironically owning 50 percent of the airport via its joint venture with Hutchison Whampoa, the proposal said the Government must be asked to "amend or enact any legislation that will facilitate the sale of the Grand Bahama International Airport to the Bahamas Airport Authority (BAA) in a 'peppercorn' sale" as a matter of urgency.

This will effectively hand the responsibility and cost of building a new airport terminal and facility to the Airport Authority and Bahamian taxpayer. "The Airport Authority is to build a new terminal or renovate the previous terminal to a fully-functional facility scaled to accommodate the current traffic volumes along with the ability to grow as traffic increases," the committee added.

It is unclear, though, whether negotiations over the airport between the Government and Hutchison, which has management control, have truly progressed since this newspaper reported last year that the latter and GBPA were willing to exit for a $1 sales price. However, it is thought that Hutchison was waiting for the Dorian insurance proceeds, which it planned to walk away with rather than reinvest.

The committee's proposal also indicates why Hutchison and the GBPA may be eager to exit. "For more than a decade, Grand Bahama International Airport has not had the passenger traffic required to make it financially viable at its pre-Dorian scale.....

"Aviation fuel prices on Grand Bahama are uncompetitive relative to other options. Lack of economies of scale have led to higher ticket prices and public misconception that the Grand Bahama Airport Company (GBAC) tariffs are the cause for these rates.

"Grand Bahama International Airport is subject to storm surge inundation and, in the case of Hurricane Dorian, that proved devastating. The current state of Freeport’s economy and the collapse of tourism as a result of COVID-19 renders reinstatement of the airport facilities uneconomical."

As for the issues associated with restoring the Dorian-ravaged Rand Memorial Hospital, the committee said: "Access to modern and first-class healthcare is integral for Grand Bahama and expansion initiatives. Freeport lacks effective emergency care, ICU (intensive care unit), stabilisation and medical evacuation capabilities."

To address this over the medium to long-term, the report proposed that a private full-service hospital be developed in Grand Bahama to be operational in six months, using the former Okyanos space and its existing facilities.