(CNS): The Cayman Island Government (CIG) has approved a $28 million expansion of the runway into the North Sound at Owen Roberts International Airport and a $42 million rebuild of the General Aviation Terminal for private jets. Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan said Tuesday that Cabinet had given the green light to four elements of the Airport Authority’s new master plan totalling CI$76 million, the benefits of which will “trickle down” to the people.

The outline business case that has been approved includes four projects. The other two, with more modest price tags, are the modernisation of air traffic control, which will cost $4.7M, and work on the runway-end safety area at Charles Kirkconnell International Airport on Cayman Brac, priced at just $1.15M.

At the press conference on Tuesday, officials said that the four projects would be financed through an increase in the airport terminal tax to CI$5 and the creation of a new airport development fee of CI$15 during the period of construction, which is expected to begin in 2024 and end in 2029.

According to Bryan and Department of Tourism Director Rosa Harris, this investment in the runway and terminal will result in an increase in high-net-worth visitors to Cayman because larger planes from further afield and more private jets would be able to visit the island.

“With up to 25% of the Cayman Islands GDP derived from tourism, managing the capacity, capability and competitiveness of our airports is a strategic imperative that the Cayman Islands cannot ignore,” Bryan stated. “Government has outlined in its strategic policy statement the need to attract high-net-worth individuals to vacation in our islands.

“This objective has been recognised and included in government policy year over year, and yet the current General Aviation facility, which caters to private jets and high-net-worth individuals, is outdated, of low quality and is a poor representation of the Cayman Islands from a luxury brand perspective.”

Both Bryan and Harris said that attracting high-net-worth people would benefit local people eventually through trickle-down economics. Harris pointed to the expensive accommodation where these visitors will stay, though these are largely owned by the richest segment of Caymanian society and, in many cases, overseas investors.

Both the minister and the director spoke about the need for a sustainable tourism product. However, given the potential environmental impact, the additional pressures on infrastructure, the fact that direct benefits will be skewed to those serving the wealthiest visitors, it is not clear where the true sustainability balance lies or how this project will fit into the draft climate policy, once adopted by the government.

The costs of the project are not just limited to the dollar amount. There will also be significant costs to the marine environment and even more pressure on local infrastructure with the growth in visitors. The runway will be extended some 1,100 feet, but with the additional end of runway safety and turning areas, the strip will extend to around 1,900 feet into the ocean.

Cayman Islands Airports Authority CEO Albert Anderson said that the number of passengers passing through ORIA is expected to increase by 2% annually.

Following a series of public meetings last year about the proposed plans, local activists raised concerns that they had been developed in the absence of a master plan for the country as a whole that would define how to expand tourism in the face of climate change. Sustainable Cayman has said the proposals do not prioritise sustainability, despite the increasing uncertainty.

But in the first instance, the government has given the nod to these first four projects, which are part of a more than $800 million, 20-year master plan for all three airports. Bryan said the government had prioritised what was “necessary to address safety and regulatory concerns” and “provide the greatest business development opportunities that are affordable for the country, which provide a solid foundation to support continued growth”.

Now that Cabinet has given the thumbs up to the OBC for this $76 million project, the next steps are a public consultation process and starting environmental impact assessment (EIA), before the CIAA moves toward the procurement stage.

CIAA Senior Project Manager Roy Williams said that the mangrove buffer would not be touched during the development of the project. He said he was unsure about the impact on the marine environment, though he claimed that there was “only sea grass” in the area where the runway will be constructed. He explained that the EIA would guide the project engineering and design.

The project follows the controversial and costly redevelopment of the main terminal and runway work that was completed less than two years ago.

While various factors have been blamed for the problems outlined by the auditor general, from changes and additions to issues with the consultants, the project was $20 million over budget and almost a year late.

Bearing those issues in mind, the current chair of the CIAA board, Johann Moxam, said that he and the other members were taking a conservative approach and they would be monitoring this next phase in the airport’s redevelopment closely. He said the board’s remit was to learn the lessons of the past.

“We will not be making the same sort of mistakes,” Moxam said, adding that the members and management have had some candid conversations and taken a deep dive into what went wrong last time.

“I will put my neck on the chopping block and say that we will not make the same mistakes of the previous administration and the previous board, and we are a lot more conservative,” he said and stated, “There is no one on our board with a pecuniary interest in any of the operations at the airport and no conflicts.”

See the full press briefing below on CIGTV:

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