By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Plans to develop a hotel at Lynden Pindling International Airport (LPIA) are “very much at the forefront again” as its operator seeks to acquire extra land from the Government for expansion.

Vernice Walkine, the Nassau Airport Development Company’s (NAD) president and chief executive, speaking at Saturday’s reception for the first-ever non-stop JetBlue flight to Nassau from Los Angeles explained that The Bahamas’ primary aviation gateway is now embarking on a “capacity building” drive.

She said: “We’re literally looking at how we can, and if we need to blow out walls to expand check-in halls and hold rooms and so on. That’s underway. And that will take us a little bit longer, because we obviously need to be very, very deliberate about timing for doing that kind of construction. But that’s an exercise that’s underway.

“We’re also looking at a land site development plan, where we are acquiring from the Government some additional acreage, which will allow us to do some things, given the fact that in the very near-term we don’t expect that our passenger numbers will grow to any material extent because we are not growing hotel rooms.”

Ms Walkine added: “So we’re looking at some commercial opportunities on that additional land, which will allow the airport well into the future to have sustainable revenue. That is non-passenger revenue, so some of the things we’re looking at will obviously be for the benefit of passengers.

“But they will also be for the benefit of the community, which will allow us as an airport to really develop into an aerodrome. One of the things we’re looking at that you would have heard about before, and that was suspended, was an airport hotel. That’s very much at the forefront again.”

Discussions about an airport hotel at LPIA have been occurring ‘on and off’ for more than a decade. NAD issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) document outlining bid details and specifications for the hotel project in January 2019, but no further progress was seemingly made.

Dr Kenneth Romer, director of aviation, said Jet Blue’s inaugural flight is an “exciting time” for airlift into The Bahamas.

He added: “I think the most significant challenge is that our growth is constrained by capacity. When I speak about capacity, Vernice would have mentioned again, our hotel capacity. Persons want to come here and our hotels are experiencing right now unprecedented levels of occupancy.

“The ADRs (average daily room rates) are very high in our hotels. Again, this speaks about a basic economic principle about supply and demand or demand and supply. And our major challenge right now is persons are going to be asking: Where can we put the heads in the beds?”