The Canadian company that has been awarded the contract to manage Nassau International Airport is expected to start its work in earnest next month.
Craig Richmond, CEO of Vancouver Airport Services’ Bahamas Operations, said the executive team will be in place by the end of April, but some members of the team will be working at NIA earlier in the month.
Vancouver Airport Services operates 22 airports around the world, and according to officials, each airport brought a unique challenge to the company.
Mr. Richmond, who was among company executives paying a courtesy call on Prime Minister Perry Christie on Thursday, said Vancouver Airport Services has four years to expand the airport facility and substantially upgrade the existing building.
“We need to work on the infrastructure,” Mr. Richmond said. “We need to certainly within the next four years build a new terminal, but in the meantime spruce up what’s there and just apply some of the modern things that we’ve found working with customers and working with U.S. pre-clearance.”
Prime Minister Christie welcomed the executives at his Cable Beach office, saying that the government is happy that the new management team is a reputable company with many years of experience in airport management and development.
“To me this is a significant day in our commonwealth,” Mr. Christie said.
“Our country’s lifeline is tourism. The island of New Providence services the main product that provides the lifeline and the airport is the gateway to our country. So Nassau International Airport after what I would consider to be defining negotiations, will have for the first time in our history a private management team in charge.”
The prime minister indicated that Vancouver Airport Services would also be able to provide expertise to the government as it seeks to upgrade airports throughout The Bahamas.
“As we grapple with the challenges we shall have a partner whose expertise we shall be able to avail ourselves of in bringing with confidence a full and new airport plan for the entire commonwealth,” Mr. Christie said.
The prime minister also pointed out that the long awaited upgrade of NIA would be good news for hoteliers, especially those at Kerzner International and Baha Mar who have embarked on major developments.
“This is a much awaited development by the resort developers in our country who are well aware that the billions of dollars being invested on the island of New Providence must be matched by airport services comparable to and certainly in conformity with the product that they are developing.” Mr. Christie said.
The executives told The Bahama Journal that their company is up to the challenge of bringing NIA into the “modern age”.
President and Chief Executive Officer of Vancouver Airport Services Frank O’Neil applauded the government’s efforts to upgrade the airport, noting the significance that a world-class airport has for any economy.
“The airport is your front door to your country; that is your first impression,” Mr. O’Neil said. “You are attracting high value visitors and they expect excellent services and our job will be to deliver those services and we are fully confident we can do so.”
Mr. O’Neil said that his company is the number one airport for passenger processing and applying information technology.
“We want to be sure that we are designing an airport here for the future not for airports as they were,” he said. “So we want to take that experience and bring it to Nassau International Airport.”
By: Stephen Gay, The Bahama Journal
