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St. Vincent and the Grenadines moves mountains for airport

Posted on September 20, 2010 | By Aubrey Cohen

Rendering of the entrance of the planned $240 million Argyle International Airport in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, set to open in the Spring of 2012. (Business Wire)

St. Vincent and the Grenadines will start construction later this year on a new $240 million international airport, the Southern Caribbean nation announced Monday.

“The new Argyle International Airport will be a game changer for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as it will finally allow us to attract direct flights from major North American and European cities,” Glen Beache, tourism minister for the collection of 32 islands and cays, said from the World Route Development Forum, in Vancouver, B.C., according to a news release.
Expansion of the existing E.T. Joshua Airport wasn’t feasible, so the country broke ground on the replacement, its largest development project ever, in 2008.
The earthworks phase, now underway, involves moving three mountains, spanning a river and filling two valleys to completely level the site. Construction of the terminal, runway, taxiways and aprons is scheduled to start in the fourth quarter of this year.
The new terminal building will have about 123,784 square feet of floor space and is designed to handle about 1.4 million passengers per year, nearly four times the capacity of the existing E.T. Joshua Airport. The 9,000-foot-long, 150-foot-wide runway is designed to accommodate jets as large as a Boeing 747-400, whereas the current airport can only take small plans traveling from neighboring islands.
“The full realization of the potential of our country’s growth and development hinges on this international airport,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said in the release. “(T)ourism is likely to be our main foreign exchange earner for a long time to come.”
The International Airport Development Company, a private limited liability company wholly owned by the government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is developing the airport.