Castries, December 19, 2018 – The redevelopment of Saint Lucia’s international airport will get underway very soon. On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, the Parliament of Saint Lucia voted to borrow US$100 million for the Hewanorra International Airport redevelopment project.
The plan, which is expected to be unveiled in the coming days, will include the construction of a new terminal building equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, restaurants, shops and executive lounges, and the conversion of the old terminal to accommodate fixed-based operators (FBOs).
The Saint Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA) is excited about this development as it will provide an added incentive for airlines to open up new routes to the destination.
Saint Lucia’s Tourism Minister, Honourable Dominic Fedee noted, “We have exhausted the current capacity of the Hewanorra International Airport, and the redevelopment project is part of our government’s broader plan to expand the island’s room stock by 50 percent in the next eight years.”
Currently, Saint Lucia has a room stock of just over 5,000 rooms spread across large and small hotels, villas, guest houses and apartments.
Acting CEO of the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority, Mrs. Tiffany Howard says, “This is a welcome development and great news for the tourism industry. The SLTA continues to negotiate for more airlift into the island and having a new, modern airport to leverage with airline partners is a huge asset.”
At present, Saint Lucia welcomes close to 400,000 stayover visitors every year, with the largest number coming from the US market (45%), followed by the Caribbean (20%), the UK (18.5%) and Canada (10.5%). Tourism accounts for 65 per cent of the island’s economic activity.
Last year the government instituted a US $35 airport development charge (ADC) on each arrival to finance the US $100 million loan from the Taiwanese government. The Taiwanese are also providing much needed technical support on the project.
Construction of the new airport is slated to begin early in 2019 with the goal of having the facility fully operational by the end of 2020.
UDOHREADYET…Bull ….. …wait…a ley sa la. So long for an IA….rubbish
I’m so happy with the pace Dominica has taken with development for many reasons. some people think of development as fast food and will benefit them magically while they sit on the sidelines and criticize! st Lucia’s development goals is good in the sense that Dominica can learn from St Lucia’s mistakes and do it better. take your time, that way Dominica will get the real benefit from development not the foreign investors only. look around the Caribbean all the development is owned by foreigners. Dominica has done exactly the right thing to evaluate and think it through so in the longterm our children will be the beneficiaries… own the land and properties and the businesses and the income and the process. You own land businesses and have a unique culture… why sell that for paper money to be subservient to other people so some people can simply say we are developed… why? own it, own it!
Which Dominicans, the sons of slaves of the A-RABs? Because of the sons of slaves dont own anyuthing in Dominica.
Duh..That’s all the reason why, I’m sure you’ll agree.
By the looks of it the current Dca gov’t will be there for a very long time, so I am confident they will build one in Dca by the year 2055.
That’s what you sons of a no good idiots Dominicans are good at to praise or admiration of other people country and at the same time bring down and discriminate towards your country Dominica dam” DNO will not allow me to use the word I have in mind “. But I will say this if Pm Skerrit was a dictator as you wormbags keep calling him, or he was wearing a white skin all of gutter dogs would of have respect for for the man and his good work that also includes Linton and his loonys so-called party.
Meanwhile Dominicans are still staying over in everybody island on their way home and making them even richer while the supreme doctor builds more villas and goes off on jollies all over the globe while the masses suffer. We remain last in everything. Always remember that we do not need an international airport, because St. Lucia has one.
St.Lucia talks with action,Dominica talks no action.
…Meanwhile in Dominica, The King Joker raised the possibility of Dominica having an international airport with two 40ft containers serving as the terminal buildings.
lol imagine reading the headline I remembered what dr dr said about having the 40ft container. Yes I
Way to go skerro we are waiting for our resilient international airport. Container resilient airport . woy
After 19years in government,DLP and Dominica,lead by one of the most inept leader of the Commonwealth has to close down its airport whenever there is a heavy shower..There have been promises of international airport in 2005,2009,2014, deliberate ploys to fool the electorate. In the meantime Dominica continues to be a the last KarKarRat country in the region.
When as a leader trickery,lies,deceipt and deception are your buzzwords,your country must be doomed
Skerrit Must Go
Skerrit Must Go
LAZY Skerrit Must Go Now
get the population to over 100,000 then you will get an international airport.
hehehehe – you realize St Kitts population is about 20,000 LESS than ours? and they have RLB international? what you have to say now, big mouth? you want it over 100,000? start reproducing
hehehehe
100k poor people dependent on the Red Clinic are not going to get you closer to an international airport.
St. Kitts does not
Re development. We not only getting beat in the race, we getting lapped.
Hope that means it will be cheaper for us to go to the States and other countries as we can go Via St lucia instead of Barbados and Antigua.
We are indeed getting lapped since most countries in the region, if not all, already have international airports and like Antigua, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia is also planning on improving while Dominica is still singing the same old song that have been on the radios prior to independence.
40 years is a long time to take before one step can be made. We need to start walking, maybe then we won’t be lapped again.