Opinion: There Needs To Be An Investigation Of The Multimillion US Dollar Expansion Of Jamaica's Ian Fleming International Airport.
In February of this year, an American Airlines flight from Miami touched down at the Ian Fleming International Airport near the resort town of Ocho Rios in Jamaica. The flight ushered in regularly-scheduled commercial traffic from a major airline at that airport for the first time.
Named for the British writer who used the area as his base while creating the world’s most famous fictional spy, James Bond, the airport is the country’s third international airport, in addition to the two bigger ones in Montego Bay and capital Kingston, about a one-and-a-half hour drive to the west and south, respectively.
Transport Minister Daryl Vaz hailed the event on X as "yet another example of us implementing effective policies and taking decisive actions for the benefit of all Jamaicans."
The minister of tourism, Edmund Bartlett, had also previously made grand claims that the airport would be a huge game-changer: more tourism would deliver more revenues, jobs, money and opportunities to the local community.
However, I have serious reservations.
From 2011, when the airport was transformed from a small aerodrome, it could only accommodate aircraft not much larger than a Lear jet, resulting in mainly private aircraft and charter flights, and, unsurprisingly, it has been a financial burden since then.
A response to an Access To Information (ATI) request from the government operator, the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ), shows that in the 11 years between 2013 and 2023, the Ian Fleming airport handled fewer than 11,000 passengers racking up losses of about J$1.3 billion or US$8.4 million, all borne by the Jamaican taxpayer.
In 2023 alone, the airport handled 1,479 passengers for the whole year and earned the equivalent of around US$37,000, meaning that each passenger brought in just over US$25 (US$37,000/1,479). The expenses of the airport, then, were the equivalent of US$1.77 million, which means it had a loss of US$1.73 million. To cover those expenses, assuming they remain the same, the airport would need to handle at least 70,000 passengers for the year to break even (US$1.77 million/US$25).
But with American Airlines being the only commercial passenger airline now flying into Ian Fleming two times per week using aircraft that have a maximum capacity of 76 passengers each way, that’s 304 passengers each week for all four legs of travel --- a total of 15,808 passengers, at most, each year.
Even if American Airlines were to commence daily flights, as it said it will in December, arrival and departure traffic would be, at most, 1,064 passengers per week, or 55,328 for the year. And, who knows, maybe the daily flights will operate for only the busy winter season.
A 2019 study reported that 97% of small airports with less than 1 million passengers per annum are unprofitable. The Montego Bay airport had 5.2 million passengers pass through last year, and Kingston had 1.7 million. There are private operators at both airports.
With more flights, more facilities will be needed, so expenses at the government-run Ian Fleming may rise significantly. The AAJ’s own internal forecasts for the 2027-2028 fiscal year show about 41,000 passengers, which includes the possible addition of a once-a-week flight from InterCaribbean Airways carrying about 30 people each way. This means the airport is unlikely to break even anytime soon, if ever.
Ian Fleming International Airport —Benefiting Jamaica or Sandals?
How is this a game-changer? Only in Jamaica could this debacle not be a scandal and heads not roll.
The Ian Fleming numbers indicate that the airport should have been closed years ago and an enquiry conducted into why it was built.
But the owner of Sandals Resorts and the Jamaica Observer newspaper, the late Gordon ‘Butch’ Stewart, always championed its expansion. He claimed quote "I have talked to ALL these airlines and they can't wait. They have told me they would fly to Ian Fleming the day after the runway is extended..." He also claimed that the extension would cost "chicken feed money," so one has to wonder why he didn't put his hands into his own deep pockets.
The "chicken feed money" to extend the runway was estimated to be between US$20-30 million, according to the Minister of Transport Robert Montague in 2018, when the government started to upgrade it. However, the runway was actually long enough to accommodate medium-sized airliners - typically those carrying around 80 passengers and having a range of four hours flight time, so restricted to the Americas - but it needed to be widened. Widening was completed in June 2021, and along with other upgrades and works from 2018, that cost was over US$10 million, according to the sum of the figures in the ATI response.
One eye-catching upgrade was the construction of the Sandals Airport Lounge. It is for the sole use of Sandals' customers and the hotelier is said to be paying a fee. An arrangement with the Stewart family is unsurprising because they're openly in favour of the incumbent Jamaica Labour Party. A presentation was made during the welcoming ceremony for the inaugural American Airlines flight, honouring Stewart for his "outstanding contribution to the development of IFIA." Their newspaper had a recent headline, "In time, tourism workers will call Minister Edmund Bartlett blessed." Prime Minister Andrew Holness has flown to open Sandals Resorts elsewhere in the Caribbean, and even though the resort bore the costs, one is left wondering how the country benefits.
An Investigation Needed
Expanding an airport at a cost of over US$10 million with no possible return on investment cannot be based on unsubstantiated claims from a hotelier, especially from one whose hotel chain stands to benefit.
Sandals has a new resort around 20 minutes away, so there will be the usual rich beneficiaries. This is the Jamaican version of tourism, where investors come first.
The fairy tale video production celebrating the expansion is a slap in the face of the people. It is a celebration of gross mismanagement of the people's money, featuring most of the major players responsible for this diabolical misuse of the people's cash. The local media should be leading the demand for an enquiry, but instead, the people see the headline, "Next stop, Negril. Success at Ian Fleming International Airport excites interest in western Jamaica town," and assume airport expansion is good for Jamaica.
The money would have been infinitely better spent on roads for the benefit of everyone. If we had real tourism, there would be good roads to all places of interest, such as Nine Mile, YS Falls, and the Blue Mountains. Negril doesn't need an airport. The town needs roads and water, and a better-lit road from Montego Bay.
Jamaica receives around three million tourists by air each year, and there will never be a significant rise in those numbers. Jamaica cannot accommodate more tourists because the island doesn't have the water or infrastructure. The promised benefits will never materialise because tourism is a minimum-wage paying industry. Passengers, especially those from the diaspora, will simply change destination, so the other airports will lose out. And when the increased expense of running an expanded facility is factored in, the airport could run at a bigger loss.
This is yet more evidence of a country that is run for investors to get richer, and the parliamentarians escape scrutiny because of the lack of probing mainstream journalism.
There needs to be an investigation by the Auditor General.
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*Exchange rate used for all calculations is J$150:US$1.
Dr. J. Lennon is an advocate for real change in Jamaica. His website is: LetsBuildaBetterJamaica.com. The views expressed are his own and not necessarily those of 18º North. Send feedback to LetsBuildaBetterJamaica@gmail.com
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Am afraid Mr Lennon will wait indefinitely for a response as MOCA is definitely no FBI. It appeared controlled or influenced by politics and will carefully crawl so as not to get shafted. The IC has been waiting on a statutory declaration from the PM it seems they won’t get until it’s carefully fix and package in reasonable time. These things couldn’t happen under a Lee Kuan Yew who looked at our system before it became so messy and built theirs now a world class to ours without any IMF
...an INDEPENDENT investigation into this matter is NEEDED. Chances are, none will be conducted. We can assume no investigation because the obvious findings are already common knowledge to those of us and US who are not dunce.
How many times have we seen things like these before.
The reality parading as 'life = living' on the "rock". SMH