Business View Caribbean Dec. 2018 / Jan. 2019

24 25 THE ANGUILLA AIR AND SEA PORT AUTHORITY hoping that, in the ‘18-‘19 season, and all indica- tions are, with the airport fully back and access by the ferry port from St. Martin at Blowing Point back up to speed, we should have a very significant tourist season coming up.” In fact, the airport did suffer significantly less damage from Irma, and Williams says that it was up and running within 36 hours after the storm. “It was able to aid with relief as well as evacu- ation flights for persons and goods coming into Anguilla,” he notes. The hurricane, however, did shine a spotlight on some of the airport’s dis- advantages, including its relatively short, 5,440- foot runway, which Williams believes needs to be extended to approximately 7,500 feet. “We are working with a group of investors and are hoping to extend not only the runway, but extend airport operations with a new terminal building and all other support services,” he says. “The hurricane also caused us to speed up some changes that we were making to our navigation systems for aircraft coming in and taking off,” adds Fahie. “The system that we had was based on very old technology, and our reg- ulator, Air Safety Support International, took the position that it should be phased out.We have now replaced that with an Instrument Flight Procedure (IFP), based on GPS technology, which will greatly improve the technical efficiency of aircraft operations. That was quite an achieve- ment for us, because up to this month, we could not handle day and night flights, because the old, Non-Directional Beacon didn’t have the new system in place.” Fahie adds that the AASPA is also working on long-range plans for expansion of the airport. “The first critical stage is an outline that will touch on all of the aspects: finance, organiza- tional structures, operating companies, invest- ment, traffic studies, navigation studies, and en- vironmental impact assessments,” he states. “This would be quite a substantial investment, and the British Government wants to make sure that the plan would not cause too much increase in the