Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett told The Associated Press
that the problem stemmed from a shortage of airport staff to process the
unexpected volume of people flying into Sangster International Airport in
Montego Bay since the end of the pandemic.
Bartlett told Parliament later that day that there were 1.18
million arrivals from January through March — 94% more than the same period of
2022 and a record high for Jamaica’s tourism high season.
“The recovery has been stronger than anticipated and
everybody all over the world is having difficulty with their airports because …
(many) of the workers have not come back,” Bartlett said.
He said authorities plan to spend more on technology as they
strive to do away with paperwork at the airport, including ending a requirement
for visitors to fill out a form upon arrival.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness said the problems at Sangster
underscore the need to push through the $70 million modernization and expansion
project that already was underway.
The work is scheduled to be completed by 2025, and Honess
said the improvements at the Caribbean’s largest and busiest airport “will make
Jamaica more attractive and make Jamaica more competitive with other countries
in the region, which have also invested heavily in improving their
infrastructure.”
As part of the project, the runway is being lengthened at a
cost of $34 million, work that is expected to be finished in June.
“We are excited about the prospects of Sangster being able
to accommodate these mega airlines that will be flying to Jamaica and the
Caribbean,” Bartlett said during the AP interview last week.
He said the Tourism Ministry’s growth plan aims to have the
island draw 5 million visitors annually by 2025. That would be a 35% increase
from Jamaica’s peak of 3.7 million tourists in 2022.
Bartlett said Asian and Middle Eastern countries are among
new markets being targeted and the airport must be able to accommodate the
larger aircraft that would be used on such long-haul flights.
In 2019, before the pandemic, the airport processed 4.7
million passengers, including citizens and visitors. The number of tourists to
Jamaica peaked at 3.7 million in 2022, 70% of whom used the Sangster gateway.
Sangster is managed by MBJ Airports Ltd., a consortium 74.5%
owned by a subsidiary of the Mexican airports operator Grupo Aeroportuario del
Pacifico and the rest by Vantage Airport Group of Canada.
The consortium, which has a 30-year concession that began in
2003, said it spent $287 million to improve the airport in the first 18 years
of the deal.
Among the improvements, the airport operator has expanded
the immigration hall and departure lounge. The check-in area was recently
outfitted with 60 self-service kiosks, with plans to install more, to reduce
passenger processing and waiting times. -AP