Groundworks at Grand Bahama International Airport (GBIA) should begin "any day now", Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation Chester Cooper told Grand Bahama News. 

When asked for an update on the highly anticipated project, Cooper said, "[The] agreement was done before the end of March. Any day now, we should see some of the groundworks.

"The teams of the consortium are actively engaged with a lot of time spent on the project and on the island.

"Stakeholder consultations in relation [to] the designs are underway. This is critical to [determine] which elements will be completely demolished and/or repaired."

Cooper announced the deal in early March at Grand Bahama Business Outlook, saying an agreement was reached with a consortium to undertake a $200 million redevelopment of GBIA, which was badly damaged in Hurricane Dorian in 2019.

"The Bahamas entered into an agreement with Aerodrome Limited, a Bahamian company; Manchester Airport Group Limited, an airport management company based in Manchester in the United Kingdom; and BHM Construction International, a company based in London, back in February," he said.

"Subject to final designs, this is expected to be an investment of $200 million in that range and this investment will begin its preliminary works this quarter."

While in London last week, Prime Minister Philip Davis announced that UK EXIM Bank has made $1 billion available to The Bahamas to draw down, $400 million of which will go toward the redevelopment of GBIA.

However, he later clarified the amount that will be allocated for the airport project.

"I did indicate $400 million, but I misspoke," Davis said.

"It was really $200 million, but we were talking about a $400 million package, so as to include other airports that have yet to be completed.

"So, the initial draw down will be about $200 million. We are looking at another $200 million from that billion-dollar allocation for the purpose of developing the airports."

The prime minister said he was grateful for the partnership with the UK EXIM Bank, as it is beneficial for the country and the Bahamian people.

In his remarks at the Business Outlook, Cooper said the airport construction will take five years and will employ 1,200 Bahamians during that time.

He said the mission is to transform GBIA into a carbon-neutral, climate-resilient, commercially viable, world-class airport.

Phase One will be the construction of the new GBIA during which 300 construction jobs will be created with another 50 engineering, management and accounting jobs.

That phase will consist of the domestic terminal, and the US Preclearance terminal, new initial taxiways and aprons, new initial roads and car parks, a flood mitigation system, a flood attenuation basin, renewable energy systems, a sea defense berm and support bridge, and air freight cargo facilities.

The second phase will consist of new expanded taxiways and aprons, a new domestic parallel runway, new expanded roads and car parks, and its focus will be on heavy lift air freight cargo.

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