Government has decided to extend the Beef Island runway by some 2,400 feet even though a business case designed to assess the project’s feasibility is not complete and promised public meetings have not been held.
“We want to let the public know that we have not made any decisions one way or the other on what the final outcome or the final design of the airport will be,” acting Premier’s Office Permanent Secretary Elvia Smith-Maduro said last week in a livestream broadcast on the government’s Facebook page.
“What we have decided is that we will expand, and we will expand moving us from what we currently have, which is a 3C airport, to a 4C airport.”
Achieving the “4C” designation will mean extending the current 4,646-foot runway to at least 6,000 feet to enable larger planes to land, officials said on the July 2 programme.
Officials speak during the government’s Facebook livestream last week. From left are Communications and Works Minister Kye Rymer, Premier’s Office acting Permanent Secretary Elvia Smith-Maduro, BVI Airports Authority Managing Director Kurt Menal, and BVIAA Special Projects Director Clive Smith. (Screenshot: GIS)
Business case ongoing
The announcement means that the government decided to proceed without the benefit of the completed business case currently being carried out by consultant KPMG (BVI) Ltd.
The business case is using the “Green Book Five Case Model” employed by His Majesty’s Treasury in the United Kingdom, which includes separate “strategic,” “economic,” “commercial,” “financial” and “management” cases, officials have said.
Those components are expected to examine wide-ranging aspects of the planned project, including its economic viability, its costs and benefits, its potential revenue, its value for money, its compatibility with the territory’s economic and tourism strategies, and others.
The business case will also help determine the best financial model to be used for the expansion, government stated previously.
Controversy
Without such information available to the public, the government’s announcement is likely to add fuel to the controversy that has surrounded the project since it was first proposed in 2012 by then-premier Dr. Orlando Smith’s administration.
Dr. Smith and his successors — including Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley — have argued that a major airport expansion is urgently needed to attract larger aircraft that can foster direct connections to the United States mainland and beyond, in turn increasing tourist traffic and revenue to the territory.
But detractors have questioned whether the expansion will bring the direct flights that VI leaders promise.
And even if it does, they have said, a longer runway could adversely affect the existing tourism product by bringing more visitors than the territory can properly accommodate.
But without a comprehensive business case in the public domain — and without a national plan to guide tourism decisions — both sides have relied largely on speculation to make their arguments.
The government has decided to extend the existing 4,646-foot runway at Beef Island to at least 6,000 feet, officials said. (File photo: INTERLINK)
Facebook livestream
Though no public meetings have been held to discuss the latest expansion plans, officials said last week that the Facebook livestream was designed to engage residents and answer questions as part of the ongoing business case.
No one called in to the programme, which lasted about 47 minutes, but officials provided information about the project and answered a few questions they said had been submitted in advance.
“The reality of the situation on the ground is that the [Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport] is a dated facility,” said BVI Airports Authority Managing Director Kurt Menal.
“The facility is running out of capacity. … You see it, for example, during the busy seasons like Christmas into New Year’s: We have jets and planes spilling over. We have to turn away jets.”
Bigger jets
Currently, the largest commercial aircrafts flying to Beef Island are American Eagle Embraer E175 jets that carry around 76 passengers at full capacity.
But BVIAA Special Projects Director Clive Smith explained that the authority wants a long enough runway to facilitate Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s, which can carry more than twice that many passengers.
To facilitate that access, he said, the airport will have to be expanded to qualify for a “4C” aerodrome reference code.
“The minimum runway for a 4C aerodrome is 6,000 feet,” Mr. Smith said. “Right now, we’re at [4,600]. American [Eagle] can’t leave at full capacity. Oftentimes, they have to stop in San Juan to refuel depending on wind direction, depending on temperature.”
The decision to expand the runway to at least 6,000 feet came from the project “steering committee” that government established in February, according to Mr. Smith.
“So we’ve spoken to the master planners and have advised them that we’re looking at a 4C runway,” he said.
The steering committee includes public-sector representatives from the BVIAA; the Ministry of Communications and Works; the Premier’s Office; the Town and Country Planning Department; the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change; the BVI Tourist Board; and Attorney General Chambers, Ms. Smith-Maduro said.
Also on the committee is BVI Finance, which represents the financial services industry, and “private-sector partners” from the tourism sector, she added.
Additionally, the committee includes the “lead team” from KPMG, government has said previously.
Survey
During the broadcast last week, officials also encouraged residents to take a 10-question online survey that government released on June 21 to gather input for the business case.
The survey — which has drawn criticism for limitations in its multiple-choice answers — asks about the project’s potential impact on the territory’s economy, traffic congestion, quality of life, environment and society, among other areas.
Ms. Smith-Maduro said last week that the survey had been a success.
“The response from the general public has been good so far,” she said. “We’ve had in excess of 250 responses thus far. And literally the day we launched it, it seemed like the website just blew up.”
‘The right infrastructure’
Communications and Works Minister Kye Rymer, who also appeared on the livestream last week, suggested that the territory is in a strong position to support the tourism increase that he said would come from an expanded airport.
“We have the right infrastructure in place to welcome these people to our territory,” the minister said. “I know persons may ask about the infrastructure: … the roads and the water and the hospitals and so forth. I know we’re working on having, again, a loan so that we can fix our road infrastructure.”
He added that the premier — who didn’t appear on the livestream — will “speak a bit more” on that topic in the future.
“We send out the [request for proposals] to get this loan, and it should be coming to Cabinet soon because we need to fix our road infrastructure, make sure water infrastructure is up to par,” Mr. Rymer said.
12 years of delays
If completed as promised, the business case will be the first study to review the planned expansion in such detail.
Successive governments have pushed the project for more than a decade, but none has published a full business case as required by a 2012 agreement the VI signed with the United Kingdom to promote fiscal stability and transparency.
That agreement — the Protocols for Effective Financial Management — requires government to complete and publish a business case and “robust” cost-benefit analysis before the procurement stage of any major capital project.
In a Feb. 12 announcement that KPMG (BVI) Ltd. had won the contract for the business case after submitting the lowest bid of $209,089, Mr. Rymer said the policy principles of the Protocols for Effective Financial Management were upheld throughout the tender process for the study.
“This ensures that we are putting value-for-money considerations at the heart of the decision-making process and ensuring improved accountability in public-sector operations,” he added.
Mr. Menal said at the time that his agency already had a “wealth of information” gleaned from previous studies about the proposed project.
“This source of knowledge serves as a robust foundation for informed decision-making throughout the development process,” he said. “The availability of this information not only streamlines the current project but also positions us strategically for long-term success.”
In February, officials said the business case would be complete in three months after it got under way.
However, it is still not finished, and Karia Christopher, government’s acting communications director, said Tuesday that the study’s timeline is “currently being updated.”
American Airlines began operating direct Miami flights out of Beef Island in June 2023. But the American Eagle jets carry fewer then 80 passengers, and government wants a longer runway to accommodate larger planes. (File photo: DANA KAMPA)
Dramatic shifts
This month is not the first time a VI government administration has decided to expand the airport without the benefit of a comprehensive assessment or prior public meetings.
When Dr. Smith’s National Democratic Party-led government first held public meetings on the plan in 2012, officials described the project as a “done deal” and said a 2,500-foot runway extension would cost around $38 million. The announcement sparked heated dialogue between supporters and detractors of the project.
About seven years passed before another public meeting, but in the meantime the projected cost ballooned over the course of two tender processes.
A first round of bids in 2013 came in at around $400 million, and a second round for a scaled-down project came in between $153 million and $200 million in 2016.
Meanwhile, millions of dollars were spent on preparatory works and studies. Much of this documentation, however, was withheld from the public as leaders downplayed the lack of transparency.
When then-governor John Duncan was asked in April 2016 about the government’s failure to publish the business case required by the Protocols for Effective Financial Management, he told a Beacon reporter, “Well, let’s get away from the business case, because you’re doing what the French call chercher la petite bête, which means ‘looking for the small insect,’ literally speaking.”
About three months later, with the tender process apparently still ongoing, Dr. Smith’s government finally released a partial “outline” business case, along with another study.
But the documents — which were both created by PricewaterhouseCoopers — did not include a full cost-benefit analysis as required by the Protocols for Effective Financial Management.
And although the government promised at the time to complete and publish a full business case later, it never did.
Nevertheless, in December 2016 Dr. Smith’s government announced plans to accept a $153 million bid from the China Communications Construction Company.
More controversy followed as leaked CCCC bid documents suggested that the company would receive a series of concessions.
The CCCC plan later stalled for unexplained reasons, and by 2018 Dr. Smith’s government was floating the idea of a new public-private partnership as part of the territory’s recovery from Hurricane Irma in 2017. But that plan didn’t proceed either.
Change of tune
The project appeared to be dead in the water after then-VI Party leader Andrew Fahie came to power in the February 2019 general election.
While campaigning, Mr. Fahie had announced that his party was “not in support” of the proposed airport expansion at the time, calling it a “legacy project to” Dr. Smith.
However, soon after his party won control of the government and he was appointed premier, Mr. Fahie changed his tune.
Then-Premier Andrew Fahie speaks during a January 2020 rally in Cappoons Bay, during which he announced his plan to proceed with the airport expansion he had previously criticised. (File photo: DANA KAMPA)
In 2020, his government effectively restarted the project from scratch, hiring Atlanta-based consultant Brakkam Aviation Management, which recommended the construction of a 9,100-foot runway at an estimated cost of $183.78 million over a period of three to five years.
Mr. Fahie did not disclose how much the BVIAA paid the firm or say whether the consultancy was tendered.
Bakkram was founded by company CEO and President Miguel Southwell, a former general manager of the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, who was fired in 2016 amid a public spat with the city’s mayor, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The BVIAA’s contract with the firm resulted in a six-month interim report that made various recommendations, beginning with suggestions for expanding the airport runway, Mr. Fahie said at the time.
The report, however, was never provided to the public.
Since then, leaders in the current and former governments have periodically mentioned their commitment to expanding the airport.
In February 2023, for instance, BVIAA Chairman Theodore Burke led a VI delegation to Miami to attend the Airport Expansion Summit for Latin America and the Caribbean.
On the delegates’ return, the BVIAA announced that public-private partnerships were again among the options being considered for funding the project.
Other options under consideration included government-funded and “self-funded” models, according to a press release issued at the time.
Mr. Menal — who was part of the Miami delegation — said at the time that his team was revisiting various studies and plans that were developed over the years for the proposed expansion.
BVI Airports Authority Managing Director Kurt Menal (second from left) and BVIAA board member Elvis “Juggy” Harrigan (left) attend a meeting during the Airport Expansion Summit for Latin America and the Caribbean in February 2023 in Miami. (File photo: GIS)
‘Master plan’ not public
The release added that the BVIAA and the Communications and Works Ministry had “shifted the focus from airport expansion to holistic airport development based on a master plan which is a long-term guide to development that supports an airport’s business and infrastructure development strategy,” according to the press release.
At the time, however, Mr. Menal declined to provide a copy of the master plan, saying that it was in draft form and had not yet been presented to the government.
He estimated that it would be finalised within three to six months and made public sometime after that.
Since then, Mr. Menal has not responded to requests for an update on the plan’s status.
Invitation-only meeting
Meanwhile, a stakeholder meeting about the project was held last August, but the public and media were not invited.
“This initial meeting was the first stakeholder consultation meeting,” Chief Information Officer Desiree Smith told the Beacon at the time. “The invitees consisted of a cross-section of government departments and agencies and key private-sector stakeholders and industry partners.”
Ms. Smith did not list the invitees or say how they were chosen, but she said that public meetings about the expansion plan would be held “at a later stage.”
“At the moment, the Ministry [of Communications and Works] is conducting the preliminary works, like reviewing and updating existing plans and previous feasibility studies, business cases, Environmental Impact Assessments, etcetera,” Ms. Smith told the Beacon.
A few weeks after the stakeholder meeting, opposition member Julian Fraser asked about the project plans during a Sept. 5 House of Assembly meeting
Mr. Rymer remained tight-lipped, but he allowed that the BVIAA was “focused on the holistic development of the [airport] based on an airport master plan, which includes the extension of the runway and associated airside infrastructure.”
’25-year master plan’
Last week, government provided more information on this “master plan” in the comments section of the Facebook livestream.
“The Airports Authority has a 25-year master plan that informs the future development,” the comment stated. “This plan is informed by a forecast up to 2040. The master plan is updated every five years. This ensures sustainable development of the airport.”
Responding to the comment after the livestream, Beacon Editor Freeman Rogers asked about the plan.
“Is this master plan public?” Mr. Rogers asked. “If so, how can the public go about getting a copy or viewing it? If not, why not?”
As of Beacon press time yesterday afternoon, no response had been posted and no public meeting had been scheduled.
Mr. Menal and KPMG did not respond to requests for the plan and other information.
Ms. Christopher, the government’s acting communications director, said the master plan is “currently being updated and cannot be shared.”
