In a telephone interview with The Nassau Guardian yesterday, Mr Reid said, “We haven’t had any power failures today and things are operating normally”.
He admitted though, that “we do have passenger back-ups, but that is normal for a Sunday.”
He attributed the power outage on Friday to “something happening with the BEC system as far as we are concerned.” Mr Reid also said that no outages occurred on Saturday.
As for concerns raised about the state of NIA’s terminal building, Mr Reid said the old structure would be upgraded.
“Something is on the drawing board for that. We are getting in a new organisation to run the airport and to develop the terminal and we are talking about spending $250 million dollars,” he said.
At this stage he pointed out that management contract talks must be completed first. “As soon as those are finished and approved then we will move to the next phase.”
In March last year, it was reported that a new company would be named by June 1, 2004 to operate NIA. Last February, news reports indicated that a company had been selected but not notified.
When pressed for an explanation as to what “the next phase” meant, Mr Reid explained that the talks have been going on for the last three or four months and by the end of September the process would be continuing.
“After the government accepts the recommendation with regard to the management company, a process would begin for redevelopment. In fact it has already started,” he said, pointing to the $40 million being spent on the runway. “That is the beginning,” he stated, adding that the terminals would be the next step.
By: JIMENITA SWAIN, The Nassau Guardian
