Business View Caribbean September/October 2018

30 31 ARGYLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT eral other countries, including: Cuba, Venezuela, Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico, Austria, Malaysia, Turkey, Qatar, Libya, and Taiwan. It was con- structed under the auspices of the International Airport Development Company (IADC), a private, Limited Liability Company, owned by the gov- ernment of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, at a final cost of approximately $700 million. From the outset, there were huge challenges. First was finding a good site because St. Vincent is a mountainous country. So there were not many places with enough flat land to build an airport with a runway 9,000 feet long. Eventu- ally, a site was found, but it wasn’t flat. Three mountains had to be reduced, two large valleys needed to be filled, a river spanned, and 135 homes and 275 acres of land had to be pur- chased to create an area flat enough to house the airport and its runway. Because of these and other factors, the Airport opened five years behind schedule. However, opening day was a festive event, which saw some foreign dignitaries, including Presidents, Vice Presidents, current Prime Minis- ters, and former Prime Ministers from the re- gion in attendance, including the Hon. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who was a driving force behind the airport project. A Dynamic Airways 767-300ER landed at the Argyle International Airport on the morning of February 14th around 7:07AM, the first commercial international flight to land, making its way from New York City. Later, an EasySky 737-200 landed from Cuba with a number of Vincentian students and 60 former Cuban workers. Caribbean Airlines made its inaugural chartered flight out of New York City, while Sunwing Airlines scheduled a chartered flight from Toronto. These two airlines touched down at Argyle one hour apart for the grand opening. Today, the following airlines fly in and out of Argyle: LIAT, Caribbean Airlines, Air Canada, Sun- wing, Grenadine Airways, SVG Air, Mustique Air- ways, and Trans Island Air. American Airlines will begin offering flights from Miami, beginning in December, 2018. Peak seasons are Carnival, Christmas, and Easter, and the U.S. and Canada are the peak international markets for travelers. Currently, there are no flights out of Europe; those tourists generally come to St. Vincent via Antigua, Barbados, and Trinidad. Cargo airlines include Amerijet International, DHL, and FedEx. Argyle’s facilities include a passenger termi- nal building, a cargo terminal building, an air traffic control (ATC) tower, aircraft rescue and