I am somewhat puzzled by the efforts of Norris Prevost and his UWP cohorts to re-litigate the matter of the international airport or to revisit the wisdom of upgrading the Melville Hall facility with night landing as opposed to building a brand new international airport.
First of all, I have enormous respect for Mr. Prevost and his commitment to the development of the country. He is a very capable and knowledgeable man. He is an economist who holds an advanced degree in Public Policy from Harvard, an accomplishment which ought not to be dismissed or taken lightly.
But it is because he is an economist and a public policy expert that that I find it difficult to understand his reasoning. Or is it that he chooses to wear his political hat and has set aside the lessons of economics that should guide the discussion of an issue that is central to the development of this country?
Let me be clear: I am not in the habit of defending the present government but there are times when one has to put politics aside and take a position based on merit, logic, and economic sense. Neither of these seems to be present in Mr. Prevost’s futile attempt to score political points in the matter of the airport issue.
Let’s not forget that an international airport is a very major piece of capital expenditure and in every piece of capital expenditure one has to weigh the cost of debt service as well as the revenue from that expenditure over the short, medium and long term. Assuming capital expenditure of some $200 million for the airport one would have to ask whether the existing infrastructure on the island, meaning the number of hotel rooms, the road network etc, is of sufficient scale to make economic sense of that level of expenditure. This is important considering the fact that economics itself is a science that that deals with the optimal allocation of scarce resources.
How many daily “arrivals” are recorded at the moment? Two hundred? And of those, how many are from neighboring islands that would not require a jet aircraft?
The decision to further develop Melville Hall to serve as a ‘bridge” to a time in the future when an international airport would make economic sense was the right decision. Over the next ten to fifteen years one would expect the road network to be sufficiently improved and the number of hotel rooms on the island would be sufficiently increased to handle the flow of visitors that an international airport would make possible.
It is tempting to believe that an international airport by itself is the magic catalyst for the development of this country. Advocates for the cause never fail to point out that Dominica is the only island in the region without this magic catalyst, with the exception of St. Vincent where one is under construction. But the truth is that every country must proceed along a path of development that takes into account its own set of challenges, its own strength and unique set of circumstances.
Dominica is unique in that it is not given to the type of mass tourism that is typical of Antigua or Aruba. Instead there has been a fair degree of success in turning this handicap into a positive with the development of eco tourism and its attendant activities including diving, whale watching, bird watching, etc. This niche marketing will not be hindered by the absence of an international airport. Tourists who engage in these types of vacation activities are usually very well heeled and are less inclined to consider other factors like ease of access in making their travel plans. They know that in visiting the Nature Island they are not traveling to Aruba for sand sea and sex, although some of the latter may be in abundant supply.
If you think we have financial challenges today, guess where the country would have been if we had gone down the foolish path of spending what we could not afford on an international airport. We most likely would be facing a debt to GDP ratio large enough to warrant a second visit from the IMF. And don’t forget, it was partly due to the economic policies of the UWP that necessitated the arrival of the IMF and the attendant austerity measures not too long ago.
Today we are witnessing one country after another buckling under the weight of public sector debt, from Greece, to Spain, Ireland, Portugal, in fact most of Europe, not to mention the United States where law makers are in the midst of cutting spending to manageable levels. It is comforting to know that our public sector debt, as large as it is, was not augmented by this thoughtless infatuation with an international airport.
If we were the beneficiary of the largesse of some wealthy donor, I would say by all means let us accept his gift of an international airport. But to spend what it takes to have one now, given the enormous capital expenditure and debt service that would entail, not to mention the idle capacity in the early stages of use, we would be in breach of prudent financial management, especially if there is a credible alternative with a reasonable price tag and this is precisely why the Melville Hall alternative, as a stop gap measure, makes considerable sense.
And I am sorry to sound hard on the UWP, but their record of financial management when they were in office does not encourage confidence that the results would be any different with an adventure into an international airport.
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Very good article indeed, and very interesting comments.
I am always surprised to read comments on the “international” airport issue without reading which airline would be interested in this airport facility.
Based on the travel figures of Dominica, any airline landing here would ask for government revenue guarantee; As they do everywhere if the market is not strong. This means Government (…Dominicans…) would have to pay for any empty seat . That is how it works in St Lucia, in Grenada , in St Kitts…. Are we ready for that cost ? For that risk ?
Then, even if you decide to “guarantee” such seats to potential airlines, you are going to open the Dominican market to only a very limited number of destinations . You are not going to be having direct jetliner flights from various US , European, Central american cities. So only 2 or 3 airports will be connected.
Now , when you add the infrastructure cost (or reimbursment of the debt) , plus the annual maintenance fee of such an airport, plus the huge cost of empty seats payments to the airlines………
You exceed by far the loss a local airline would generate each year . When I mean by far, one must understand the cost of an international airport would be about 5 times more than the loss of an airline.
The airline is a tremendous marketing tool throughout the Caribbean, it gives high end jobs to Dominican pilots and engineers, it give nice jobs to the Dominican diaspora in the Caribbean hubs, and it allows Dominica to be linked to the best Caribbean hubs with the appropriate timetable to allow for direct/Same day inbound and outbound connections to more than 30 major Cities in North and Central America as well as Europe.
Last, but not least, such an airline would be an unvaluable tool for our Agricultural exports .
Some figures speak by themselves and do not require economic or management degrees to be understood. This is only common sense accepting that 2 plus 2 is 4 .
Obviously, it requires to evaluate it with no political ideas …
I know! Thumbs down from the majority but I fail to see the objectivity in this piece pseudo- intellectual drivel. I’d just highlight two problems with this piece. A bridge as I understand it, links two items one with the other. Has the writer shown how, the waste of funds at Melville Hall serves, as a ‘bridge” to a time in the future when an international airport would make economic sense. Does Melville hall cite have the potential to be further developed to bring it to the standard of an IA?
Secondly he talks at some length about, hotel rooms, visitor numbers and what the expectation of those visitor which we do have, are. He has neglected however, to take into account, the cries of those in the tourist industry for better air access.
Just as a quick side note; he failed to cite the wastage taking place in the grounds of the state house.
Strongly agree with you papa dom
Our infrastructures have just not been fully developed yet to necessitate an international airport. We have more to accomplish before we can get to that height. The day will come but please be patient, one thing at a time. Blame your past leaders for doing nothing back in their days. Skerrit is trying his utmost and he will succeed eventually. I hope you can see all those tangible developments and progress going in Dominica. This is remarkable so far given the short time he has been in office.
Very well written article and very objective. This are the kind of articles that Ilike to read. The writer here is being objective and has taken into account what is happenning worldwide and the lessons that we should learn when contemplating on having an international Airport.
“If we were the beneficiary of the largesse of some wealthy donor, I would say by all means let us accept his gift of an international airport. But to spend what it takes to have one now, given the enormous capital expenditure and debt service that would entail, not to mention the idle capacity in the early stages of use”. I agree with Mr Esprit’s point of view above.
Those are the kind of information that needs to be given to the masses who thinks that one should just build an “International Airport”.
Who will take those issues to the average man at the level they will understand? Some of the Politicians (Opposition especially) are too obsessed with getting to the seat that misleading others to get there is the order of the day.
Mr Esprit probably you could have some form of lecture (break down) to the populace and can probably start at the Primary School level and move upwards – Secondary and Tertiary.
Hope you are home though. Just a suggestion!
I have to applaud the writer on his commentary of the “airport issue.” It is a wonderful piece of commentary talking of the pros and cons and more of the cons of building an international airport under our present circumstances. I have always felt that it just does not make economic sense under our present circumstances to build an international airport with money we don’t have when there are more pressing issues to deal with at this point in time. With the upgrading and modernizing of Melville Hall for the short to medium term makes for more economic sense and lends itself as a bridge to greater things in the near future as the building of an international airport. If Dominica had to have had an international airport it should have been in the days of the late E.O. Leblanc who had promised one and it never materialised. He also promised to build a hotel on the Scott’s-Head beach when the Scott’s-Head beach was one of the best in Dominica at the time and it never materialised. Our past leaders with the exception of Miss Charles have all failed us.It is very important that we first build our infrastructures to the fullest before we can entertain the idea of an international airport otherwise we will be revisiting the IMF and the World Bank. I do believe that our current PM is definitely on the right path. We can see tangible developments and great progress taking place in our island right now and there are more to come but everything takes time. The fact remains that our PM is doing his best and that we can feel proud of.
Before I get lynched,I would like people to take my comment in strides. I want to make it clear that I do not want Dominica to remain behind in development. What I would like is for us to examine all international airports in the region. Get the stats from them as to the viability of the airport and how much it has improved their GDP. Our topography limits us immensely. We have to bear that in mind. We are just too mountainous.
Let us say we have the airport, how are we going to maintain and sustain it? How is the revenue going to be generated? Can we accomodate the people we expect? DO we have the hotel capacity? I know some people are of the opinion that the hotels will follow th airport. How long after the airport will the hotels come? Where do people stay in the meantime? Are we sure we can get people out of the country without overnight stays? If they do not stay overnight, how do we make money?
Borrowing money is easy. Paying back money is hard. What is the plan? I know many of the benefits of an international airport but how viable is it for Dominica? Who are we targeting for using this airport? How often do our people travel? How many of us travel more than once a year? How many business people need to go out and re-enter daily? It would be nice to be able to land in Dominica without overnighting anywhere but how viable is it to cater for a few pople? Just my opinion!
Ex Senator Norris Prevost? Harvard University? Economist? I thought he has a MBA (Masters in Business Administration)? I remember very well when I looked at the U.W.P manifesto some years ago this is his qualification.
With that said, I believe the government should get into a contract with a rich individual with good credibility to build an international airport here, let him run it or something like this…
I think we think too shallow. Up to this day we can’t get night landing off the ground. We hope at least this gets off the ground.
Uhmm sir night landing is off the ground
Why would a rich individual build an international airport to serve 200 people per day? How long do you think it would take for this venture to start turning a profit?
You must think rich people are stupid. If you had that kind of money, would you build an airport in Dominica?
It seems to me piper you only look at the hurdles however, how to tackle these hurdles you do not look at this.
If there is good marketing skills with this airport as a nature isle destination people will eventually come to Dominica. Everything starts off a little rough, while the airport is being built it must be advertised, the rest of the infrastructure must be put in place.
Our people are really shallow!