Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation. (File Photo)
NASSAU, Bahamas — Establishing the city of Freeport as an air cargo transshipment hub could generate the extra income required to make its rebuild attractive to private capital and operators/developers, a Cabinet minister said yesterday, The Tribune reported in an article written by Business Editor Neil Hartnell on Thursday, June 24,
Dionisio D’Aguilar, minister of tourism and aviation, told Tribune Business that additional revenue streams beyond mere tourist and resident passenger traffic may be needed to finance Grand Bahama International Airport’s (GBIA) $50m-$60m redevelopment into a resilient facility that can withstand future Dorian-strength storms.
Given Freeport’s US proximity, location on trans-Atlantic aviation routes and existing status as a maritime transshipment hub via Freeport Container Port, he argued that the island’s main aviation gateway was ideally suited for investors looking for an alternative cargo hub to congested US airports.
With the first investor briefing on the government’s efforts to outsource Freeport and six Family Island airports due to take place on Monday, Mr D’Aguilar said the returns sought by private developers, operators and financiers are typically dependent on fees generated by passenger and aviation traffic.
With traffic at Grand Bahama International Airport depressed due to the reduction in tourism and Grand Bahama Shipyard activity, and storm resilience key, he added that the cargo hub concept could provide the necessary revenue stream to both attract the private sector and generate the necessary financing.
“With Freeport’s airport, we all agree that it’s going to cost a tidy sum to rebuild this airport to make it weather resilient. You’re going to have to think about different revenue streams to make that airport attractive and viable to potential investors,” Mr D’Aguilar told Tribune Business.
“Just brain storming, the proximity of Freeport to the US serves it well as a container port for shipping. That behooves the question: Why not pursue another type of business such as air cargo? Freeport is wonderfully situated between North America and South America, wonderfully situated between Europe and South America.
“To me, in much the same way that the Container Port fulfills that function, serving as a transshipment hub for marine cargo, so too can the airport serve as a transshipment hub for aviation cargo. It could be any airport in The Bahamas, but Freeport is best suited for that. It has a substantial amount of land and is already in the business. It can do it fairly well, because it’s in the business of marine cargo.” See complete article in The Tribune at http://www.tribune242.com/news/2021/jun/24/ministers-cargo-hub-plans-gb-airport/
