By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

The Grand Lucayan's chairman yesterday backed calls for the government to take over ownership of Grand Bahama International Airport from Hutchison Whampoa and the Port Authority.

Emphasising that it was his personal opinion, and not government policy, Michael Scott told Tribune Business it was "plain" that a "new regime" is required for an asset that essentially provides a key economic lifeline for Freeport and the wider island.

Amid growing concerns as to the ownership's plans to restore terminals and other facilities ravaged by Hurricane Dorian's storm surge, Mr Scott said the airport's fate and restoration will undoubtedly be a factor in negotiations between the government and Royal Caribbean/ITM over the latter's $195m first phase Grand Lucayan acquisition and harbour redevelopment.

"My view on the airport is plain," he told Tribune Business. "There needs to be a new regime for that [the airport]. My view, for what it's worth, is that the government should take over that and do the same thing that happened at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA)."

That saw the government outsource LPIA's management and operations to the Nassau Airport Development Company (NAD), which is overseen by Canadian-based airport operator, Vantage.

However, Mr Scott said the views he holds on Grand Bahama International Airport are his alone and, while he has expressed them to the government, they do not reflect the latter's policy. Any decision on the airport, he added, is "above my pay degree", and the attorney said he was unaware of any talks between the Minnis administration and its current owners on the issue.

"That's certainly going to factor into the discussion," Mr Scott said of the talks with Royal Caribbean and ITM Group. "I don't know what the specifics are, but I think it is understood among all parties that a fair amount of remediation has to be done at the airport.

"It's the essential issue that has to be resolved. A fully functioning and equipped airport is integral to the redevelopment of Port Lucaya."

The Government's negotiations with the Royal Caribbean and ITM Group joint venture restarted yesterday and Mr Scott, while declining to go into specifics, said: "They're moving along and we're now into the nitty gritty. We're into the meat of the negotiations now, and the talks are going to accelerate in earnest."

The Grand Lucayan chairman's remarks, though, are likely to add to the growing pressure on Hutchison Whampoa and the Grand Bahama Port Authority's (GBPA) families, which each own 50 percent of the Grand Bahama Airport Company with the former having management control, to publicly detail their plans and timelines for restoring and rebuilding the airport.

Terence Gape, senior partner at Dupuch & Turnquest, in a letter published in Tribune Business this week called on the Minnis administration to ensure the Grand Bahama Airport Company's owners make financing available for its swift rebuilding given its importance to the Freeport economy's survival.

He suggested that the government require that the proceeds received by the GBPA's two shareholder families, the Haywards and St Georges, from selling land they own at Sharp Rock to Carnival for its new cruise port be placed "in escrow" to guarantee there are funds available to rebuild the airport's Dorian devastated terminals.

"The airport terminal is an absolute priority," Mr Gape argued. "I have been gratified by the growing realisation that the Grand Bahama International Airport is an essential instrument, and is central to the rehabilitation and revitalisation of the Grand Bahama economy.

"Without this, our industrial plant will wither and die and our efforts to revive the tourism sector will fail. It has even been said that without an international airport Grand Bahama will become another Andros.

"If Hutchison and the families readily agree to earmark funds for the airport terminal and commence reconstruction then my fears will have proven groundless and I apologise."

Mr Gape's words echo those of Magnus Alnebeck, Pelican Bay's general manager, who told Tribune Business in a recent interview that "Freeport's business model won't work" unless its airport is rapidly restored to a standard where it can receive US and international flights.

With the US pre-clearance facility unlikely to return until Grand Bahama International Airport was restored to an acceptable condition, the Pelican Bay chief said Freeport and the wider island faced the threat of "being converted to an out island very quickly".

He argued that it "would not even become an Exuma or Eleuthera", as both those islands receive international flights, but rather "an Andros" located just 80 miles from South Florida unless international airlift came back "as quickly as possible".

"Maybe somebody should suggest they buy the airport," Mr Alnebeck told Tribune Business previously of the RoyalCaribbean/ITM venture. "To me it would make sense if they're going to operate 1,300 rooms on the island and be a major investor in the tourism industry.

"You would want maybe at least a say in that airport, and maybe they would prefer to have a government to speak to rather than another private entity. I think that would be a wonderful idea."

The Pelican Bay chief admitted the thought that Hutchison would not reinvest any insurance proceeds into the airport's revival had "crossed my mind as well". He added: "Hutchison doesn't have a proven track record of spending insurance proceeds widely in Grand Bahama, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

"I suggest that the Government has a serious sit down with them and ask how much they really want for the airport. You have a good company operating Lynden Pindling International Airport (Nassau Airport Development Company) that maybe could be an operator of the airport in Grand Bahama as well."