Airports upgrade vital to economic growth

[Jangle]

The NMIA in Kingston is in need of some serious upgrades. I was shocked and disappointed to learn that the Kingston airport saw so little international traffic.



Like most Jamaicans who wish this country well, we winced on seeing the videos showing passenger gridlock inside the immigration hall at Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay a few weeks ago.

Travellers, we are told, suffered wait times of up to three hours to clear the airport. That was not a good look for Jamaica. Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of the travel industry will tell you that airports provide travellers with the first and last impressions of a destination.

A bad airport experience will not only infuriate local travellers, it can upend all the efforts made by travel agents, tour operators, hoteliers, operators of villas and attractions, and other tourism industry players to woo visitors to this wonderful country. And if visitors, in particular, start sharing that bad experience by word of mouth or — as was the case a few weeks ago — via social media, it makes it more difficult to promote Jamaica as a destination worth visiting.


https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/edit...onomic-growth/

[Jangle]

NMIA targets tourist traffic

PAC Kingston Airport Limited (PACKAL), the operator of the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA), is anxiously waiting to secure an operator to build out a service station on the airport’s grounds, which it believes will be icing on the cake when added to the over US$140 million worth of expansion and rehabilitation works now underway at the capital’s international air transit point.

Speaking to the Jamaica Observer following a media tour and briefing held on Wednesday, CEO of PACKAL Sitara English-Byfield said the entity is now in dialogue with a potential bidder and is hoping to secure some success following a number of other discussions.

“We have been doing tenders and talking with service station operators and we’ve never stopped from doing this as we seek to bring one of those businesses to the airport. We’re currently waiting on one to confirm if they will be willing to come and operate here,” she told BusinessWeek.

Citing the airport’s roundabout as an ideal area to have the station, English-Byfield said it would prove lucrative for an interested operator. The challenge in not having this opportunity already taken up she, however, said surrounds the concession period.

“The project is a greenfield one, which means they’ll have to build from scratch and this will be expensive. With only 20 years left in our concession, we believe that any operator who builds from scratch will want a longer term, which we do not have, and we cannot speak beyond the 25 years because we do not know what the future holds,” the CEO, who was appointed in April of this year, said.

“As we continue to have dialogue with a number of operators, we’re hoping that by the end of this year we’ll be able to put up that ‘coming soon’ sign to say [which] operator will be coming to Norman Manley and that we will get to have a service station here,” she further noted.

PACKAL, which took over operations of the Kingston airport under a 25-year concession agreement with the Government of Jamaica in 2019, will see its concessionary period come to an end in 2044, with an option to extend for an additional five years. The entity owned by Mexican outfit, Pacific Airport Group, also holds the concession for the Sangster International Airport in Montego-Bay, operated through an entity called MBJ Airports Limited.

Concerning the roll-out of the capital expansion programme now underway at different sections of the NMIA, PACKAL, as the airport’s operator, said it has been moving to fast-track a number of rehabilitation works amid numerous complaints about the poor state of the airport by travellers — much of which are tied to the entity’s aged infrastructure.

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2024...urist-traffic/

[Assasin]

To be fair. My last visit a few months ago, I flew into Kingston and while it was busy, the process was smooth. The only problem is to relay the message that we should fill out the digital form before you arrive to make it much easier. The airport can do with a little upgrade but it is no worst than Laguradia the last time I was there a year ago.

Hope they build the Negril airport but make it larger than the Orracabessa one so it can get Negril traffic.

[Jangle]

LaGuardia airport nice and crisp now. I don't know the details about the proposal to build a new airport in Negril, but I can't see that location being feasible for an international airport.