New facilities opened at Sangster Airport

Pickersgill and Morrison

WESTERN BUREAU:

MINISTER OF Transport and Works, Bobby Pickersgill, Saturday opened three new facilities at the Sangster International Airport, as part of the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) US$28 million expansion programme.

The airport now has a private aircraft centre, a general (VIP) lounge area and a smoking lounge.

Speaking at the opening function, the Minister said the new facilities were part of a string of new developments that the second city had benefited from in recent years.

"Literally billions of dollars have been spent in Montego Bay," the Minister said. He cited the Montego Bay Civic Centre, the problem-plagued North Coast Highway and the South Gully drainage project.

The airport's expansion programme, aimed at expanding and upgrading facilities at the airport of the tourist capital, began in November 1999 and to date work to the tune of $740 million has been completed, according to a written statement from the AAJ.

Mr. Pickersgill said that the next move would be to expand the airport's runway.

The expansion of the runway will likely affect residents of Flankers in Montego Bay, an informal community situated less than a mile from the airport's runway.

A number of residents from this community, living in close proximity to the airstrip, have already been notified as to their relocation and have reportedly been compensated.

Speaking with reporters Saturday, economist Dennis Morrison, chairman of AAJ, did not rule out the possibility that additional residents might have to be relocated to accommodate the necessary expansion.

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