Antigua & Barbuda Opens Bids for New Airport

Antigua & Barbuda will invite bids for an engineering firm to build a new international airport on Barbuda in 2017, said Gaston Browne, the country’s prime minister.

The plan to build a new airport is the latest in a series of planned tourism infrastructure investments scheduled in the dual-island Caribbean nation.

In an Antigua Observer article, Browne said the airport will be privately funded by individuals “who have investments in Barbuda” including billionaire businessman and philanthropist John Paul DeJoria. Browne said DeJoria will invest $5 million in the airport project and the government also “has a commitment from two other developers in the region of $9 million.”

The new Barbuda airport would complement Antigua’s V.C. Bird International Airport, which recently completed a renovation and the opening of a new 247,569-square-foot terminal.

Speaking at a ceremony to celebrate the $30 million renovation and expansion of Antigua’s Heritage Quay cruise ship facility, Browne further revealed Antigua will invest $50 million in 2017 to build a third cruise pier.

The government “is committed to spending a further $50 million within the next year to build a third pier,” he said, and will invest another half billion dollars in the St John’s Deep Water Harbor through a variety of developments.

Antigua is also welcoming new hotel and resort development. Marriott International broke ground this month on a $40 million Antigua resort, the 70-room Coconut Beach Resort by Marriott. The new property will be located on the site of the former Coconut Beach Club.

Last year Browne announced a $250 million project with Academy Award-winning actor Robert DeNiro and Australian businessman James Packer to launch a new luxury resort on the grounds of Barbuda’s defunct K-Club resort.

The new tourism developments come in the midst of an arrivals surge. Antigua & Barbuda’s arrivals increased 9.9 percent in the first half of 2016, with 170,108 overnight visitors between January and July according to Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) data.

Earlier this year tourism officials cited the 2015 launch of new JetBlue Airways flight to Antigua from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport as a catalyst for the country’s visitor surge. Antigua’s government and the Antigua & Barbuda Tourism Authority also opened a new terminal at V.C. Bird International Airport in 2015.

Source: Travel Pulse