Business View Caribbean l Feb 2023

101 102 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 GRANTLEY ADAMS INTERNAT IONAL A I RPORT trophies, and certificates during graduations. We also participate in career showcase events that expose students to aviation careers, besides partnering with other career lines like the police, immigration, customs, fire, and airlines.” Besides these initiatives, the airport also provides ad-hoc assistance whenever needed, like helping conduct clean-up during a recent ashfall and providing maintenance and support to communities affected by the recent airport upgrade. “Our CSR is broad and entrenched in the community, even reaching into areas like cancer and healthcare awareness,” says Bourne. All these factors combined have placed GAIA in the top five Caribbean airports, only behind those in countries like Jamaica and the Dominican Republic. “We look to those airports as a role model for us at GAIA,” Bourne says. “As they continue to strive to improve, we are right behind them, emulating and sometimes improving on what they are doing.” All the operators within the airport help the airport achieve these results, from restaurants to firefighters to fuel providers. For Bourne, the airport itself has little to do with its success, counting the efforts these operators contribute as central to its success. “I see myself as a landlord, and all the tenants are the stakeholder we work with,” he says. “No one entity is responsible for our success because it is a collaborative effort. If I were to single out the ones that contribute the most, it would be our two main FBOs, who are responsible for most of the airport’s essential operations, and the catering provider.” Other notable providers are the fuel provision consortium, the primary security provider G4S, and critical government entities like customs immigration and the police. As the new year unfolds, Bourne’s focus as CEO of GAIA is to ensure it keeps modernizing and BUILDING BARBADOS, TOGETHER Roads and Highways Coastal and Marine Foundations and Piling Utility Installation infrabarbados.com INFRASTRUCTURE AND CIVIL ENGINEERING