And, with this new flight, the Phillip Goldson International Airport is literally full to capacity. In fact, when Sun Country Airlines starts flying to Belize next year they will have to borrow space from another carrier.
On Saturday we asked Tourism Minister Heredia - who is also the Civil Aviation Minister - what's the plan for future airlift - and seems kind of dicey:..
Hon. Manuel Heredia, Min. of Tourism
"The only problem that I have at this point is that I have been looking around at the expansion of the terminal of the airport and if we continue to bring airlines at the pace that we are going, then we will have to take a pause, or we will have to hold on for a while until we increase. But I always believe that when you are moving a long and the country is doing good, never stop - always stay on the move. So that is my only concern at this point. We have some county coming in December and see the congestion of both the departure and the arrival and I am hoping that we can get together with the concession company and see how best we can formulate a medium term plan and a long term plan to the expansion. Otherwise, you see Placencia, already they will soon be gearing up to finalizing that international airport and the strategy of the civil aviation is that we have one south, one north and Phillip Goldson over here. So that is the future that hold for Belize and I am hoping and work together to make it better for Belize."
"The details and the nuts and bolts of that has to be worked out, because as you know there is a contract, an exclusivity contract around which ties the government of Belize into doing many things. Hopefully we can work together and see how best. Otherwise even the Placencia or the San Pedro might be in jeopardy, because it says that any existing airline cannot be diverted or any new airlines - they have the first option of that one. If they have the money - it's yet to be found. We have at this moment Placencia that is half way down the line and investor apparently says that he is almost ready to go into it, because in deed if there is an agreement, government has to honor it. We have to look also at how that agreement is, how we can modify and so forth or if the new concession company has the finances to look into those two other areas of development otherwise we will have to come to halt on airlines. That is not good for Belize, not good for the concession group, not good for everyone."
"We will be looking at the possibilities of sitting down with the concession group and see what is their plan. Personally I believe that upstairs of Phillip Goldson there is a lot of space, because civil aviation has moved to its own building, that if they would put gates over here, then we can use the second floor over there and there will be a lot more space."
Email
Print