Plans revealed for runway extension
Area where the runway extension will be built at Owen Roberts International Airport
(CNS): The tourism minister has revealed plans to begin extending the runway at Owen Roberts International Airport in incremental steps. Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Moses Kirkconnell said ministry officials were putting together a request for proposals for an engineering study on the costs and challenges presented by extending the runway at Grand Cayman’s airport by just 900 feet to begin with, taking it to the edge of the current perimeter fence.
Kirkconnell explained that within the airport renovation project’s business case there was scope for more expansion, depending on what he described as “trigger events” and he said the anticipated increase in room stock on Grand Cayman was such an event. As a result, research has been underway to look at pushing the runway out in gradual steps, which will in turn present an opportunity for the tourism department to go after new visitors in new gateways, such as the West Coast of the United States and Brazil.
The minister said extending the runway across the marsh and pond area up to the fence that runs along Crewe Road would cause minimum disruption to local traffic in the capital but could open up new lucrative tourism markets where Cayman can be promoted.
The cost of the 900-foot extension to the current 7000-foot runway is an unknown factor, however, because the area of the proposed extension is marshland and pond. Stran Bodden, the ministry’s chief officer, explained that no one knows how deep the ponds are or where the water that is always there would go once the tarmac is down.
The government therefore needs an engineering and design survey to see what it would cost for the first step in what could eventually be further extensions across Crewe Road and on to the cricket pitch if the growth seen over the last few years in overnight tourism continues.
Kirkconnell said that this was just a first step government could achieve quickly and was justified as part of next year’s plans to expand and keep growing the tourism product. He pointed to the growth in room numbers with the opening of Dart’s Kimpton hotel and that brand’s connections to the American West Coast market. He said this first extension was justified by the anticipated further growth in room stock with a second Dart hotel, the renovation of Treasure Island under the Margaritaville brand, and the list of other proposed projects, such as the Beach Bay and Ironwood resorts, though none of these have yet started.
Adding 900 feet would facilitate the new British Airways 777 planes as well as a number of other types of aircraft and different payloads. Government officials believe that with this relatively small extension, which would not cause major disruption, the list of gateways could grow considerably, as modern planes are increasingly more able to land on shorter runways. As a result the minister is hopeful that this first additional stretch of tarmac could prove enough to bag whole new markets.
Category: development, Local News
Hey, look over here! Let’s start another new project…
Don’t mind the dump, unfinished high school, unfinished road near the cricket pitch and other messes/failed projects that exist.
You don’t mind living in a country with many half-built buildings as long as the ground floor is painted right?
Dealing with the article and the now hurried proposal to expand the runway. Are we living in Lalaland where an issue today is not a high priority but tomorrow it is number one policy initiative.
The ink is not yet fully dry on articles that stated that the Government did not see the need for dealing with an expanded runway. Tell me somebody tell me was it a “trigger event” and which one, was it( only mr hurry can make people move that fast ?This government now has the worst record for the number of sound bites they make, but it is evident that it’s catching up with them for we see they can’t remember what they said last. That is the failure of most governments that have run this country in the 20th century and up to now. They don’t come in with a proper plan ( just some hastily put together manifesto) and that is why there are no priorities and there is complete halter skelter and nothing is really ever concluded.
We need a plan for this land , a plan which covers the essential elements of the people’s ability to live in a decent fashion and works towards eliminating poverty, that seeks to have education available and afforded to all, that covers integration of the community , that seeks to reduce the criminal entities and environment and corruption; provides for rEhabilitation processes for misdemeanor offenses, that places the onus of parenthood on parents and finds way of assisting where necessary, that looks seriously at the social services programs and finds ways of providing employment for those persons who are recipients but are able to work, that works at and maintains a clean environment for present and future generations. A mouthful indeed, but , with careful evaluation, planning,dedication and proritization these goals can be accomplished over a period of time, obviously not within a 4 year period.
All of the politicos, back bench front bench opposition, wanna be politicians this country we call home deserves better, we cannot survive on sound bites, indecision and political machinations. We need Men land women of Valor to be our representatives and to be accountable and totally conscious of their responsibility to the people of the Cayman Islands.
We need better, demand better and expect better.
This is a sensible cost effective measure. Well done Moses and team.
Wow his s a build up for purchase of new planes. Travel to Seattle and Calgary by CAL. What a dpfeather in somebody’s underpants to know they have gone where no other Minisyer has sent our airlines to. Wow. What a mini.
A longer runway will make a bigger difference than jetways.
What is your point?
Another dumb idea. Spend millions to still have an inadequate airport. Got into the North Sound and built RIGHT! or Go EAST.
Shame they can’t build the road UNDER the runway. Too swampy I guess.
How will this affect the sales of watches?
An earlier comment said Moses gets things done, please expand no pier no runway and possibly out of office in a year. It is very easy to talk the talk but actions certainly speak louder than words…
What I find so funny is that it took these guys three years of being in office and only talking about this now. What a joke!!
What is really funny is the way you constantly repeat yourself i.e ‘they should have done this 3 years ago’. UDP/CDP operative pure and simple. You sound like a stuck record. Remember this Government had to spend time getting our finances in order after the mess your team left us in.I am sure that you remember that we could not even borrow funds because of the actions of your party.Now that things are better PPM is able to start some projects and plan for others. Instead of offering up a thank you, the best that you can do is get on here and criticize them in an effort to get your buddies returned to power..Come on man, enough of the blah, blah. Can I hear a thank you PPM from you?
Thanks Moses and crew for steady hand at the wheel.
PPM seems to get on with projects even when there’s no commissions…!!
You must have fell, hit your head, and forgot that this deficit was caused by the PPM administration building the schools, government building and roads. Most of which are still incomplete. Just for the records our finances are still not fixed. Don’t know which world you are living in.
They should go ahead and extend Dorcy Drive to the CNB roundabout by the Farmer’s Market and cut off the link between Crewe Road and Dorcy Drive. This would allow them to extend the runway much further and also eliminate the two most dangerous intersections on the island. There is plenty of room to add more lanes to these roads to alleviate traffic congestion. Then we can consider the more costly project of extending the runway into the North Sound.
It is time to stop thinking ahead only 5 years ahead and start building infrastructure that will last generations.
Is the runway going to be long enough for a direct flight to Europe to take off?
secret….
No, but the new tunnel project guaranteeing Caymanians jobs for years to come will lead right into the Houses of Parliament. Soon come.
No
Although it doesn’t mention specifically in this CNS article, the story on the news last night and the comments made elsewhere mentioned “…the possibility of new gateways to the island for visitors, like Seattle, Los Angeles, or Calgary,
That makes zero sense as those cities can already be accessed using the same planes that land here currently.
For example…Westjet uses their 737s to fly Calgary to Montego Bay and Cancun already, so could they not use them to fly here as well without a runway extension? Any airlines interested in flying to GCM from Los Angeles or Seattle can do so today using planes that are already landing here (757, 767…possibly even Airbus or 737s, too) without a need for a runway extension.
I’m not saying the runway shouldn’t be extended. I’m just saying it’s nonsense to claim that it needs to be done in order to allow flights to the cities listed. They can already happen today.
Perhaps the airlines just aren’t interested in flying here from those locations non-stop, because they already serve GCM with connections and are doing just fine?
well said…. cayman seems to think it needs a direct route to every major city in the world…..having a connection flight is no problem to world travellers….
people from seattle are not coming for a reason and it is not because of the ‘hassle’ of having to do a connecting flight in new york/miami…etc….
Oh gee EXPERT, you should have told the UAE that before they designed and built that mega airport they have now. Oh wait, it’s working good, never mind.
11.25, we are the Cayman Islands. Centre of the Universe. The mountains must come to Muhamed. If you don’t get that then you should leave quickly
a lot more goes into the take off distance than just the aircraft type. A flight from Cayman to Seattle will require a lot more fuel, in turn making the aircraft much heavier and therefore needing more tarmac to get airborne. A 737-800 flying to Miami is going to use a lot less runway than a 737-800 on its way to Seattle.
While that is definitely true, if (for example) Delta can fly their 737-800s to/from Minneapolis as they do currently, which is a 4hour 45 minute flight… the flight time from GCM to Los Angeles would only be 45 minutes longer. I highly doubt that 45 minutes of fuel is the different between being able to take off from GCM or not. If there was a market for a non-stop flight to LAX, it could be done today with the runway the way it is.
I just don’t see certain cities needing a non-stop flight, and I wager that the airlines don’t either.
Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Las Vegas, Montreal, Denver etc… all big cities that could potentially be served by a non-stop flight without extending the runway one inch.
Maybe, just maybe…there’s no market for a non-stop flight from those cities because passengers can travel here with 1 simple connection already.
treason!
Thank you for letting the ” aviation expert ” know about the effects of fuel and weight on these planes… 7000 ft is not enough and please remember that montego bay has about 8000ft plus of runway that is why westjet can do the flight. And to the LA and seattle travellers it will be way more convinient and attract more now that they can avoid having to take a red eye to miami and connecting to Cayman
Nobody ‘has to’ take a red eye to get to/from L.A. or Seattle. You can connect in multiple cities not named Miami (Houston, Dallas, Atlanta etc.) and not have to red-eye?! In fact, I flew to/from Seattle through Houston last summer with no red-eye flights, and an easy connection both ways.
Before mocking people for being ‘experts’, you should have your facts straight.
Connections reduce tourist arrivals.
Red eye no redy eye you are proving my point…multiple stops are a hassle And many more people will prefer a direct flight which will attract more!!!!! GCM-LAX on 737800 is flight planned at 6.15min and 5.45 return. And for a flight with more than 50 percent capacity yes it will need a longer runway. I fly the birds myself so get ur facts staright.
You fly the birds? Fantastic. Tell them to stop pooping on my car after I wash it.
Your flight times are off. I smell BS.
just get it done…..dart would get this done in 3 months…..moses will still be waffling on about this in 18 months time…
And the parking ticket machines still won’t work
There is nothing better after an 11 hour flight than having to waste 45 minutes trying to get out of the car park.
@9:21 28/1 Of course Dart could get it done; Dart is a multi-billionaire,Cayman Government -not even close.
Cayman is so lucky to have aviation experts who are willing to give their advise for free online.
If it were me I would extend into North Sound, half a dozen old tyres and a couple of sheets of ply, job done! Where’s my fee?
Just another project to get shelved be the PPM.
Work on the DUMP!!!!
Noise the from landing planes is already a major nuisance to the people living in proximity to the airport. I am not even talking about safety.
Live somewhere else?
There is a reason why you live is cheap. There is nothing more selfish that someone moving next to an important community utility and then moaning about it.
Yhe only safe way to do this is to extend into the North Sound. Moving the planes lower and closer to the built up area of George Town is stupid and reckless in the extreme!
The extension is for take offs giving them more runway with heavy loads.
we need to stop applying band aids. Bite the bullet and move the airport to East End where it belongs and build a proper one with jet bridges. We need a facility that can service us for at “least” the next 50 years.
Move to East end great idea….now YOU pay for it.
Anonymous (7.30 a.m.) you are 100% correct on your posting. If the runway is to be extended it must only be in one direction and that is eastward into the North Sound. Any further westward extension would be stupid and almost useless and a complete waste of money as the present landing threshold cannot be moved westward because of existing buildings and obstructions. This means that the westward extension could only be used during take off.
Two RFP’s… One for 500 feet inland, one for 500 feet to the sea.
A pathetic fop to stay over tourism in a typically ham-fisted manner that will take two or three times as long as planned and at much more cost than just doing it properly now.
It belongs in the east and the airport now redeveloped too stupid to figure this out
So many dislikes it must be the truth
For those that missed it, BA retires its 767 fleet in July if I recall. The replacement is a 777. They need this runway extension to land with a safety margin.
The 767 has been “about to be retired” on the GCM route for the last three years. Rumours of the end of that awful plane have sadly failed to materialise.
1st July 2016.
BA announced it formally couple of months back.
777 and DC10’s landed on the existing runway pre-Ivan. It’s not the landing that’s the problem, it’s taking off with a full load of passengers and fuel that’s an issue. BA used to fly direct here from London, off load and reload it’s many Cayman passengers, then fly back to London via Nassau. This of course meant that refuelling took place in Nassau to keep the take off weight down in Cayman.
That was in the days before Nassau was a lesser draw for tourists than Cayman.
How do I know this? I flew this route with BA as crew.
Sounds like alot of effort being put into not so much extra runway.
I agree with poster 7:27pm- this can not have anything to do with the Kimpton and TI and their improvements causing congestion. That sounds ridiculous. Both hotels existed before without airport issues. I think someone needs to come up with another excuse.
Really good to see this government managing with a 20 year plan. That gives investors confidence in Cayman’s future.
Wow! A lot of dollars floating around with the ppm administration. Yet gas price cannot drop under $3.00, unemployment yet to fall below 1,000, people living off $175 pension our youths don’t have a trade school. We tax the local people to invest in projects that doesn’t provide any relief to the social issues affecting our islands. Something is missing here.
@7:58pm All that’s missing is ‘your UDP signature.It is obvious that you are totally against PPM and must be missing the ‘Not so good’ old days of Mac and his antics.Remember that he passed on unemployment etc.
Oh Dear!!!
Building a ‘minimum required’ extension to the runway is OK until the first time an airliner runs off the end. If this project is serious it would make far more sense to extend the runway 2500′-3000′ out into North Sound. That would allow direct flights from the UK and Europe.
When the airport has to operate on the 26 runway axis (from North Sound) this option also means that the run-off area before an aircraft hits Huldah Avenue will be 900′ shorter. That is going to impose limitations on how effective the plan is.
As for this move being prompted by the extra traffic that will be created by the Kimpton and TI? What complete BS! The Kimpton is only slightly larger than the old Marriott and TI (assuming they can actually re-develop it) has been around for as long as I can remember without causing significant airlift issues.
It would be interesting to find who is being awarded the contract for this joke.
Waiting for the headline.
Brac runway to be extended.
Lol thought that would be first since they are his people. Can’t wait for 2017 and put them “PPM” here thought 2 of them is no longer PPM….So I would say we are on the same page 🙂
Some eco group is going to pop up trying to tell you that there are three turtle and two ducks in those ponds and that all development must stop.
We should be building the airport, and the runway to accommodate aircraft like the A380. These are the planes that many airlines are acquiring, not short range jets.
Kudos to Mr. Stran Bodden and Minister Kirkconnell they are firing on all cylinders!
Would the minister get his head out of his a*s and extend into the dead bit of the north sound to the east of the runway. If the minister had a clue he would recognize that 90% of the times the planes land towards the east so extending the runway west will only disrupt the glide scope and buildings in the area will pose a greater threat to inbound flights like larger planes need more runway to take off they also need more to land. No pilot wants to put brakes to the firewall on landing as this is certainly not good for the plane. I guess this is just another pipeline dream of the failed ppm as they always embark on RFP’S and never finish. Wake up ppm wake up. A disgruntled ppm voter
You obviously have little or no knowledge of this matter. The problem is NOT landing, but taking off and it is a hell of a lot cheaper to extend westwards with a “starter run” than to go into the North Sound.
Unless you are flying the KX 737 with failed reverse thrusters in a heavy downpour. If they splash another one, we get the North Sound extension for a reduced cost. I have to agree this aside, that going east into the sound now with an extension makes the better choice for the long term . How they pay for that remains an unknown. Plus there is only a finite amount of fill available.
Come on Allar, PPM, really? I don’t believe you.
People from East end are making noise about this too. Better kill this idea as well boys… DST and runways are the path to the devil don’t ya know?
It is very encouraging to see forward looking plans that make business sense! This is great news for all of us in the tourism industry.