Business View Caribbean October/November 2018

84 85 terminal building for both arriving passengers, and also the departure hall.We also are going to be looking at increasing the size of our apron, so we will be able to park the bigger planes.” Unfortunately, in 2017, those plans were dashed when Hurricane Irma, the strongest Atlantic-form- ing hurricane ever recorded, passed directly over the British Virgin Islands, followed just four days later by Hurricane Maria. Recently, Business View Magazine caught up with Fraser to find out how the BVIAA has dealt with the ramifications of those catastrophic storms. “We’ve had a real setback since the hurricanes,” he begins. “We were on track last year, in terms of moving forward with our master plan, and had really expected last year to be a major come- back– the first real profit year since the recession of ’08. But we had two major hurricanes and, in addition, just one month prior to the hurricanes, a severe flood. So, since then, we have been in THE BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS AIRPORT AUTHORITY joelle@ianadolphusthomas.com n 284-341-0783 n 516 554 0671 CONTACT US FOOD n DRINKS n SNACKS recovery mode, fixing and building back build- ings and so forth. At the airport, itself, we are still recovering in terms of building back the admin- istration building, and the project office, and the fire station.” “Also, our airport on Virgin Gorda was closed in May and will be re-opened by Sept,” Fraser adds. “We suffered damage from the hurricane, which really affected the fire tender at that airport. And we had to replace that tender. So, that airport is going to be reopened in time for the upcoming winter season.” “We also had some challenges in terms of the insurance –getting compensated adequately and we’re still in a waiting mode for that,” he contin- ues. “Once we get all the funding from the insur- ance, we hope to go ahead and follow our master plan, again, which would include not only build- ing back the buildings, but expanding the admin- istration complex.We also have designated a spot for five aircraft hangars, where once we had three. All of our hangars were completely destroyed in the hurricanes. So, we’re thinking that by the end