Tourism Minister Denise Charles has defended recent statements that involved the expansion of the island’s current airport, the Douglas-Charles Airport. Speaking at the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association’s (CHTA) Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Barbados recently, Charles said the move would hopefully attract new carriers to Dominica.
Charles was since then, been heavily criticized by some members of the public who expressed that extending the runway would be a waste of money because the Dominica government is already in the process of building an international airport. A one billion dollar contract between the Government of Dominica and Montreal Management Consultant Establishment (MMCE) was signed, on June 9, 2021, signaling the official commencement of the construction of the highly anticipated international airport.
“The thing [is] that we have learnt, and that is from the St Vincent experience,” she explained. “Building an international airport does not mean new aircrafts will start landing in Dominica.”
Charles continued, “The key thing in the industry is building relationships.”
According to her, because the international airport project has started, “one of the key things we decided to do in parallel is route development”.
“So we have been attending route conferences, and in discussing with airline partners we realized that there are little things we can do right now that will increase the safety of our airport and probably attract more airline partners,” Charles noted.
Meantime, she revealed that following discussions with American Airlines, they recommended some improvements to the Douglas-Charles Airport.
“So in discussions with them they recommended some improvements that we could do at Douglas-Charles to make it safer for them to land which include extending the runway and grooving of the runway,” Charles explained. “So we have decided to embark on that project to sustain the current non-stop service we have from American Airlines and also to see if we can attract other airlines to the destination.”
She explained that American Airlines which started operations last year moved from two flights to three and, at present, seven flights. CHTA’s Caribbean Travel Marketplace is the Caribbean’s largest and most important marketing event. It affords tourism suppliers the opportunity to meet face-to-face with wholesalers from around the world selling Caribbean vacation travel over the course of two days of business meetings.
The 41st edition of the event took place at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre in Barbados from May 9 to 11, 2023.
Confusion usually create confusion!
Lies has been one of human kind worst enemy, this woman Dienes is a no shame liar, it doesn’t take commonsense for one to come to the conclusion that her comments in Barbados were a package of lies to impress her audience.
Though caught in her lies she went on another rampage dibbling down l, talking about St. Vincent.
And so, reading Clarity comments, one will find the confusion in that person mind where they ask what’s the point of building the new airport if it is not goin to attract more flights into the country.
Well Clarity, the only way it will not attract International Flights is if dumb people such as those low life thieves and liars running Dominica, remain in power, do nothing to advertise Dominica as a tourist vacation destination.
One can’t visit me unless I invite them into my house!
In all my years residing in California a state with millions of people the only time I ever heard our country name mentioned is by our people.
Con
Knowing that Dominica is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, without any economic resources, no industries, the nation economy is based on the sale of passports, where only a few Dominica scoundrels makes millions for themselves from the sale of passports.
As for tourism only a few people make a few dollars in the season.
Since a country should be run on revenue collected from pay as the citizens earn, and whereas ninety-percent of Dominicans living in Dominica are unemployed, where is Roosevelt Skerrit and Denise Charles getting the billions of dollars from to simultaneously construct a new International Airport, and the lengthening of Melville Hall existing airport?
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Denise Charles is nothing more than a compulsive, confused, confound, pathetic liar!
I count us Dominicans (me too) to most of the time dumb, but any one of us who falls for that lie must be dumb!
That is not true. Dominica is not the poorest country in the Hemisphere. Get you info right
I am better informed than you are!
If you think my facts are not right, name the poorest in the Western Hemisphere; and please don’t say Haiti, because in a sense Haiti is not as poor as you may believe, but there is a difference in a country with a staggering large population, and one such as Dominica with a handful of of approximately 35,000 people.
Note: Haiti Population (2023)
The current population of Haiti is …
YEAR
POPULATION
YEARLY % CHANGE
2020
11,402,528
1.24 %
2019
11,263,077
1.26 %
2018
11,123,178
1.28 %
2017
10,982,366
1.31
You are not even an intelligent person; how I know?
This: ” Get you info right” or facts right; that I heard in Dominica, more so in Wesley when I was a kid and it was always spoken by people with nothing in their heads!
You do not know me, if you wish to, find another way to go about it!
Oh oh I think the ole man has finally lost it.
Absolutely right! It’s only the second poorest!
“Though caught in her lies she went on another rampage dibbling down”
The end of the sentence should read “doubling down:”
I recall, long form pieces by Dr. Honychurch and Charles Maynard about the end of the banana industry, coupled with the incoming pain that African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP-Countries) would face after the legal heft of Dole and Delmonte was brought to bear on the world’s stage. I also recall the end of our coconut industry (Coconut Oil) and the work that these men did on Dominica’s behalf. The problem is, the casual citizens in the international community had no idea who they were. An independent lab coupled with a PR Firm should have been hired to handle that affair, but the “Dame” was too arrogant to see beyond herself and her short comings. Dominica has and continues to produce arrogant politicians who appear to be men and women for all seasons at home, but wilt like flowers in the international community on the biggest stages. They don’t know when to pass the ball to someone else who is in a better position to score than they are. Get the engineers involved, hold…
I recall Dame E. Charles lamenting the difficulty she experienced overseas when she sought funding from international donors to build and rehabilitate roads in Dominica. She was fond of saying that funders often compared the length of the roads being proposed to that of roads in their own villages and localities. “The cost of said roads per mile in Dominica,” far exceeded what similar roads would cost in their home countries. The issue with this scenario, is this: Although Ms. Charles was correct about the cost of these roads, she was the wrong messenger, because she was not a trained “Civil Engineer.” Had an Engineer brought along drawings now “CAD Designs” on those trips, the outcome would be far greater. Today, we’re seeing the same issues and mistakes with the proposed expansion of Melville Hall Airport. We need to hear from “Kendall Johnson,” not Denise Charles.
Melville Hall Airport has a runway length of 5761-feet. Extending the runway by 500-feet will produce a total of 6261-feet of runway. This will allow additional carriers (Delta Airlines) to fly into Melville Hall, besides American Airlines and their E176 aircrafts. No major excavation work is required at the site, because the required number of feet is already there. The ground needs to be reinforced and paved. Furthermore, the government is taking the time to build our current tourism product so that upon completion of the new airport, we would have created the necessary market to entice larger aircraft to commence operations into Dominica. St. Kitts had the same approach with the expansion of their airport. Unfortunately, Denise Charles should not be the face of this paradigm shift. Civil Engineers employed by the Government of Dominica and consulting engineering firms contracted by government should be in public explaining this to the masses. When completed, this is the right step…
Likewise, civil engineers employed by the Government and consulting engineering firms contracted by government should be held accountable for their blunders.
The ongoing catastrophe at Antrim is costing the government millions, but the overseas consultant largely responsible for the debacle has left the scene of the crime.
A citizens’ consultation regarding climate change that was organized by the government has recommended prohibiting the construction of any new airports.
Melville Hall Airport is going to be the permanent airport….Plain and simple!!!!
As I listen to these GOVT ministers more….I am of the belief that the INTL airport saga in Wesley is a front for the GOVT to take folks land and hand it over to Chinese under the pretense of an INTL airport.
The so called new airport will be a luxury golf resort. Mark my words. Skerrit wanted that all along. He will just say he changed his mind and
that is the better option, after careful consideration. It will have no public road running through it but will include that lovely beach by the Atlantic. No access to the general public. Meanwhile he acquired. all the land at a very low price with low transfer fees. Who will own that luxury resort? Will the Gems people have a share in it, will Skerrit himself through a nominee company registered in a low tax offshore haven. Imagine.you can then have a very short drive from Melville Hall to that expansive/expensive/exclusive development without having to mix with our hoi polloi. Yes Sir, is so I have my vision. Ma Dominique lying on her back and spreading her legs. Alas.
At least 3 years to go before completion of the int’l airport, why not just add some length to this runway? Isn’t it a win win?
On second thought, this construction could take 1.5 years, so that’s only 1.5 years of usefulness for the cost. Thoughts anyone?
Denise, Please restrain yourself to talking about tourism. It is embarrassing to hear your talk about a subject you know nothing or little of. You’re no aviation expert or a civil engineer are you. Please, I do not like to hear our ministers to embarrass us or themselves in public. Leave it to the experts, please.
When the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines was construction their international airport at Argile, the spent no money on upgrading of their old airport.
Now the Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica is building a new airport at Wesley at an alleged cost of 1.3 Billion Dollars and our government is talking about upgrading our old airport at Melville Hall that will be of no use if our government sticks to its 5 year airport development plan at Wesley… Melville Hall aka Douglas-Charles Airport which has seen the most upgrades of any airport in the Caribbean in recent times.
Rosie and Pierro must be turning in their graves.
Are we serious… we can’t be… Why waste money on an airport that will be obsolete in five years.
Why not develop a strategic plan to utilize the airport at Melville Hall for industrial development when the new airport is build five years from now.
Does the Minister think airport development is putting false hair, lipstick or eye…
When you are dealing with people who are ignorant and lie, that’s the sort of rubbish one can anticipate.
It should’ve done long ago these folks in government have no plan also the wharf in Roseau need to be expand at least two ship could accommodate long side the wharf these folks lack of ideas.
Charles is a fool. Continues to be a square peg in a round hole. Her strengths lay is being able to use her masculine energy hidden under a mountain of fake hair to bully the people below her. Another square peg in a round hole thinking they are doing exceptionally well. Tourism is dying. Why not work on developing the sites we have making them more accepting and user friendly. Simple rails and proper steps is a good start. have shaded seating areas developed etc. doesnt take much. How about ensuring the road ways are safer. How about ensuring there are clean well lit public rest rooms around the cities and at the sites. How about working on the vagrant issue in Roseau? proper marketing is refining and tailoring your product to the needs and wants of your target market before you even think about advertising it. Dominica needs a substantial upgrade apart from the CBI hotels coming up. Now explain to me if international airport coming why we extending MelvilleHall?
“The thing [is] that we have learnt, and that is from the St Vincent experience,” she explained. “Building an international airport does not mean new aircrafts will start landing in Dominica.”
Charles continued, “The key thing in the industry is building relationships.”
It shows how much work you guys have been doing. 20 years in office only now finding out. The government of Dominica has been a shit show ran by a self serving attention deprived lunatic. Cause what I read above could have been done tears ago if these folks we have serving in office were not so corrupt. Now you building a larger airport this woman says we international airport does not mean new flights as seen in st. Vincent so we upgrading what we have to accomplish what we spending billions to do. O did not invest in an education to be more stupid an what I read above is pure stupidity.
By the way you can higher midnight groovers. They specialize in grooving
That’s right, Midnight Groovers my favorites, play only the 7 same tunes out of their >300 songs in any given show are you using them as an example of mediocre in your analogy?
Abraham Lincoln once said, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.” Meaning that it is sometimes better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open your mouth and speak stupidness as in the Tourism Minister Denise Charles case. Her statements above quoted below actually makes a good case against building and international airport!
“The thing [is] that we have learnt, and that is from the St Vincent experience, building an international airport does not mean new aircrafts will start landing in Dominica.” Charles continued, “The key thing in the industry is building relationships.”
“So we have been attending route conferences, and in discussing with airline partners we realized that there are little things we can do right now that will increase the safety of our airport and probably attract more airline partners,” Charles noted.
It seems like an admission of failure and a doomed international airport! Thank you Denise Charles.
Unbelievable! Are you quoting Abraham Lincoln, the same enslaver who is quoted as saying “if keeping Black People enslaved would keep the union together I would keep them enslaved”? What an epic effing quote, I’d rather quote Barbara or Ugly Willie in all the stench the likes of Lincoln imposed upon him years after Haiti revenge on the French forced them to abandon Chattel enslavement 60yrs later.
These people are just fooling Dominicans especially Laborites about international airport, when it is nothing more than China’s International Military Base. How could you be building an international airport and only now you extending the runway when Ross University was begging you to do just that but you all chose to send Ross to Mia instead of extending it? I happened to be in St Vincent when they were building their international airport and they wouldn’t repair toilet doors that were falling apart or anything that needed to be repaired. They had signs all over saying “ excuse the condition of our airport as all attention is on building our international airport.” Today we have those rats in office disappearing all our money in corruption and they talking about extending runway when they have taken all our land and give to Chinese . Man we just need to get rid of these rats and destroy all their breeding nests
This does not make sense it is just a total waste of money, if american airlines want a longer runway just wait for the new airport or finance the runway extention by itself why put an extra burden on us? Chups
It does make sense. You have a wait time of 3-4 years, before the new airport is completed. What happens to air travel in between that time? It’s only 500-feet of additional runway and the land has already been cleared. If we can add additional carriers to Dominica in the meantime, it will be better for all and sundry. Have you looked at the price of a ticket to Dominica from North America or Europe lately?
The sheer incompetence of this government is coming home to roost, even though it’s nothing new, after all it’s been going on for 20 years now. Skerrit had to promise a new airport in order to politically survive but full well knowing it would only be a promise, ever. Now he find himself between a rock and a hard stone again.
“Building an international airport does not mean new aircrafts will start landing in Dominica.”
Is that a reality check? Well, this is a marked departure from some of the announcements and pronouncements we’ve heard or read about in the past, for example: “The Prime Minister of Dominica Roosevelt Skerrit has officially confirmed that in 2025, planes will fly over Dominica to land at its international airport directly from Europe and the United States.” (https://ntlinternational.com/press/dominica-international-airport/)
“So in discussions with them they recommended some improvements that we could do at Douglas-Charles to make it safer for them to land which include extending the runway and grooving of the runway,” Charles explained.
Why wasn’t this anticipated beforehand? This here is a clear reflection of ineffective or no strategic planning, poor management, indecision, lack of vision, and limited capacity for good long term planning. Good leadership anticipates, plans, leads, motivates, and manages change. There is a popular saying that he or she who has failed to plan, has planned to fail.
So why wasn’t AA’s concerns revealed when the announcement was made to extend the runway?
Only a Zandoli would ask such a dumb question. There’s no sense out of that nonsense question 🙄.
Not to YOU, there is no sense in it. Hear no evil, see no evil but speak plenty of rubbish… That’s your motto!
The airport runway can be extended into the Atlantic at least another 1000 Ft. using dirt and rock from the mountain on the west end. A tunnel can go under the runway for vehicle traffic.
So basically this is happening because she is desperate not to luse the American Eagle flight. anyone heard of cost benefit analysis? Also very telling that she admits the new airport nay make no difference at all. Its hard to believe that Dominicans actually vote for these people.
What Dominica needs is not a new or improved airport in the north east of the island, but a functional airport close to the capital, Roseau. I believe there is scope for this in the heights between Jimmit and Warner, or by reclaiming some land from the sea at Canefield Airport on which could be built an east/west runway.
OMG! I can’t believe they have only just realised building an international airport does not mean new aircrafts will start landing in Dominica. So what is the point of building a new airport if there is a risk no new airlines will land there?
Before you start thinking about building relationships to expand and/or build a whole new airport, you need to have a strong strategic plan to start with. This includes gathering both internal and external data by doing research upfront to see if the vision is financially or operationally viable to start with.
Airlines normally perform multiple route evaluations in order to know if a route will be profitable in the long term or not also, before starting any new routes, airlines need to know how many passengers will travel on their flight. I don’t understand, if the runway is not safe, why has the airline increased the number of flights. That doesn’t make sense. Safety is an airline’s No.1 priority. If it’s not safe, they won’t fly…
In case you’re left wondering what “grooving of the runway” means, here is explanation in layman’s terms:
https://www.cardinalgrooving.com/grooving-explained/
Given Dominica’s high rainfall, “grooving” the runway makes sense, but begs the question why was it not done when the Melvin Hall airport was upgraded.
Thank you for putting up the information on grooving. The news media in Dominica always have issues when I criticize them but this is what you do. You don’t provide half articles. Your articles have to be thorough. Thanks again, Roger.
Bro, didn’t read the reason for doing so now? To me, your question is irrelevant. What are you really trying?
“The thing [is] that we have learnt, and that is from the St Vincent experience,” she explained. “Building an international airport does not mean new aircrafts will start landing in Dominica.”
Charles continued, “The key thing in the industry is building relationships.”
Denies, are you in your right mind or are you simply hallucinating?
You are even talking more nonsense than you spoke before, what has St. Vincent experience; except the project took a bit longer due to the hard granite they did not anticipate they had to cut through.
Lady stop talking crap, because you are not an authority on the subject of International nor minuciple Airports, you are not trained in that field, you do not have any technological training; because you are a politician does not mean you know what the hell you are talking about; stop your hogwash, because you are only making it worst for yourself!
You lied in the fires place, anybody with commonsense knows you are wishful thinking liar!
Up till now neither Ms Charles nor the “I’m-the-people” leader has cared to tell the public how much this expansion will cost the country nor how it will be paid for. Why the big secret? If this expansion is going to satisfy American Airlines then it proves that there isn’t a need for the St Vincent type semi white elephant of an international airport costing a billion dollars. Willful waste makes woeful want.
Heavily criticize by some members of the public,it is the same bunch of failed UWP bums who are criticizing,Ibo,St.jean,Juanitass and Francisco.Lazy,lying people with no work to do.
All this consulting could have happened 10 years ago when the airport was rehabilitated with embarrassingly almost the same footprint for the terminal building too. There could even have been future expansion detailed plans already submitted if not done then. Very short sighted indeed. By the time design and plans are budgeted and approved and work starts for this new idea it will be another 2 years. You can be very sure too that the new airport will not be completed on time and some aspects will be obsolete by then…. And a few years later we will say again that the revised 9000 ft length is too short and the terminal building needs an upgrade!
Does anyone expect her to say otherwise? She has to read from the script handed to her by a member to the ruling kakistocracy. Expansion of the Melville Hall Airport strip just may be a better option than the mythical international airport.
The site that was chosen for the new international airport is fraught with too many physical obstacles to overcome. The topography, many hundreds of bore-holes, suitability of soil type, et cetera.
Despite the flurry of activities taking place at the proposed site of the new airport, it is a futile exercise well orchestrated to beguile the unsuspecting members of the population.
I have an idea why can’t the minister use all that nice indian hair on her head to make the new runway. It would be cheaper for all the taxpayers of Dominica.
Yo T, it’s more like Asian horse-hair, that’s old already. Time to go natural, and we have many home grown entrepreneurs who provide cheap local natural solutions. See Jolly’s or Jody Naturals among others right here at home.