PAC Kingston Airport Limited (PACKAL) — operators of Norman Manley International Airport — says the promised internal assessment which will help guide the plans to shutter the Tinson Pen Aerodrome at Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston and relocate it to the airport is now in the hands of the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ).

The plan to remove the aerodrome is aimed at facilitating further expansion of the Kingston port and has been on the table from as far back as 2006.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, during the budget debates in April 2023, had directed The Port Authority of Jamaica, the AAJ, and the National Works Agency to develop a comprehensive plan to facilitate the takeover of the Tinson Pen lands for more storage space and reduce congestion at the terminal.

Last December, then chief executive officer of PACKAL Fernando Vistrain Lorence, in addressing disquiet amongst commercial aviation operators about those plans, had assured that consultation and data would guide any contribution it would make.

“Currently we are doing an assessment with a company from Spain, they are doing an analysis with the land we have available, and we are doing that part,” he said then.

Friday, PACKAL’s Sitara English-Byfield who succeeded Vistrain Lorence as CEO told the Observer that talks are now ongoing with the AAJ regarding the findings of the study.

“We have completed the study and we have shared it with the Airports Authority of Jamaica, so discussions are ongoing about how it will be executed because now that we know what is to be done, we need to discuss the ‘how’ including funding, so that’s where we are now, constant discussions with the Airports Authority on the execution of the relocation,” she said.

English-Byfield added that it was necessary to extend the taxiways to access the hangars because aircraft can’t drive on road. She, however, said PACKAL was not yet aware of the cost of works to be done. She noted that the concerns amongst industry players about the impact of the sea air on aircraft was not explored in the study.

“We operate there now with the sea air so we are aware of it so we know it’s manageable,” she told the Observer.

At PACKAL’s 2023 forum, general aviation stakeholder Christopher Reid had contended that the discussions for the relocation were being done “without the input of the industry”.

“I am one that was unceremoniously removed from Norman Manley [airport] nearly 50 years ago and placed at Tinson Pen under protest… I am here today to tell you 50 years later that the improvement in aircraft maintenance as it relates to corrosion was a huge step forward moving to Tinson Pen.

“Obviously a lot has happened in terms of our highway access, the traffic consideration, much has changed at Tinson Pen and I only caution us about removing it without adequate discussion with the stakeholders as it relates to the proximity of the airport to the end-users and its usefulness,” Reid, a former president of the Aircraft Owners and Operators Pilots Association, said then.

Reid, who also runs Airpak Express from Tinson Pen, suggested that one of the prime reasons given for the relocation from Norman Manley was the fact of separation of traffic — aircraft travelling as well as passenger travel. “One of the justifying reasons is that there was not enough land space at Norman Manley to safely accommodate both general aviation and airlines, particularly in the context of flying schools where you have low qualification pilots intermingling with airline traffic and the potential disaster and that was accepted as a bonafide reason for moving us to Tinson Pen,” Reid pointed out.

“I don’t know that there is any more land space today at Norman Manley than there was in 1973 when we were moved. In fact, the forecasts say we will have less land space as global warming continues its trend and our coastal areas are submerged. So I don’t know what has changed and why Tinson Pen should now be moved back to Norman Manley because today, separation of traffic for security reasons is now more of a concern than it was in 1973,” Reid had argued.

“I only caution that all of the considerations for any such relocation are taken into account and that we don’t make a retrograde step and cause ourselves to be the subject of some investigation and hopefully not an accident down the road,” he added.

Tinson Pen was originally built in the 1940s as a military airfield and was later converted into a civilian airport in the 1960s. The airport provides general aviation services, such as charter flights, air ambulance services, and cargo operations.

Sitara English Byfield, acting director of finance at MBJ Airports Ltd