Commercial aviation operators and the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) have lashed out against a government plan to close the Tinson Pen aerodrome at Marcus Garvey Drive in Kingston and relocate the operators to the Norman Manley International Airport.

The Port Authority of Jamaica is now on the drawing board with the plan which is aimed at facilitating further expansion of the Kingston port. But the operators fear that relocation would drive them out of business for good.

“In 1972. we were sent to Tinson Pen from Norman Manley Airport. on the basis that there were no facilities to accommodate both general aviation and the airlines. They haven’t reclaimed any additional lands (at Norman Manley) since, so the only thing that has changed is the convenience of them wanting to move us out of here,” charged Christopher Read, president of the Aircraft Owners and Operators Pilots Association.

Read, who runs Airpak Express from Tinson Pen, said operators had also been angered by what they said was the lack of response from the director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority (CIA), Colonel Torrance Lewis to their concerns about the proposed relocation.

Contacted, Lewis told the Observer that he had referred the operators to the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) which would have responsibility for the issues they were raising.

When contacted AAJ chairman, Earl Richards, said the facilities at Norman Manley were adequate to accommodate both general aviation and airline operation even without the expansion of the physical structure. “If operations were to discontinue at Tinson Pen we would be obliged to accommodate them here,” he said, adding that he has since informed the operators that he would meet with them if and when a decision is made as the decision rest with government. He also welcomed discussions on any alternative locations the operators would have in mind, if it receives the approval of the Civil Aviation Authority.

Operators at Tinson Pen include International Airlink; Wings Jamaica Limited, a commercial flying school; Caribbean Aviation Centre, also a flying school; Island Aviation Service, an aircraft maintenance company; Air Speed Limited, aircraft maintenance service; Strescon and Tara Courier.

Supporting the operators, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) spokesman on transportation, Mike Henry, accused the government of seeming to do things in reverse.

“It doesn’t take much consideration to determine how significant Tinson Pen is in terms of our national air transportation arrangements, yet the people out there are now in a quandary about whether or not they are going to remain in business,” Henry remarked in a statement this week.

Henry recalled the prolonged closure of the Norman Manley International Airport as a result of hurricane damage to the Palisadoes Road last year, saying that the need for the Tinson Pen facility in the event of any similar disasters in the future, was quite obvious.

The JLP spokesman said that with the country locked into critical participation in the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup next year, the operators of the Tinson Pen Aerodrome should be looking towards some buoyancy on the horizon, instead of the possible closure of the facility which would also impact quite disastrously on the private operators.

The operators are contending that the cost of rent, navigation and landing fees at the Norman Manley Airport would send members into bankruptcy, noting that current landing fees at the airport ran anywhere between US$15 and US$20 per landing, compared with US$3-US$6 they now pay at Tinson Pen.

“And that US$3-US$6 is already an untenable number because most of our flights are 15 minutes or less and so you are talking maybe five landings in an hour and most of our planes operate at less than US$250 per hour and when you start adding that sort of percentage. it is disproportionate,” Read explained.

Navigation fees, which are paid for talking to the tower to enter their flight information, cost in the region of US$30 at Norman Manley Airport.

The operators are proposing that the government provides lands for a new airstrip either on the Caymanas Estate, or across from the Ferry Police Station, or behind the Red Stripe complex on Spanish Town Road.

In addition, the association wanted the government to fund the relocation, pay the cost of inevitable redundancies among their staff and compensate the companies adequately for the infrastructure they had developed over the past 35 years.

Reid estimated that it would cost $30-40 million in redundancy payments to his company alone, if he ceased to operate.

Transport Minister Robert Pickersgill confirmed that the plans were afoot to close the Tinson Pen aerodrome in order to expand the port, as part of an ambitious proposal to establish a massive logistics centre to serve the Americas. But he said he was not in a position to speak with any finality on the matter.

“The question of the acquisition of Tinson Pen for purposes other than operating it as a aerodrome is in fact a live one. However, no firm decision has been taken. If and when that is to happen, appropriate and proper notice will be given to all the parties concerned,” Pickersgill told the Observer.

Asked if the current blueprint for expansion work at the airport included additional space for the operations out of Tinson Pen, Pickersgill said he had been advised that all facilities could be accommodated at the Norman Manley airport, except for the flight training schools.

The Minister added: “Of course we are aware of the operations at Tinson Pen and that if we are going to close down the facility, there are obvious matters arising and a part of it is to relocate to the Norman Manley Airport.”

“I know that the relevant parties are speaking. but suffice it to say we are responsible people and will not act in a way to affect adversely the operations that are now located at Tinson Pen,” he said.

But Read pointed to the disadvantages of relocation to Norman Manley, noting that it would have a profound effect on domestic business travel and the efficiency of many businesses.

The time required for passenger pre-boarding security procedures at Norman Manley Airport would exceed the actual flying time to Montego Bay by a factor of three to four times, he said.

He emphasised that each time the island was faced with a natural disaster, the first facilities that became incapacitated were the two international airports due to their close proximity to the sea. This, he said, had been more evident during Hurricane Ivan when relief supplies had to be flown out of Tinson Pen because the Palisadoes Road was impassable.

“Tinson Pen has survived every one of the major disasters that we have had and we have taken only a day at most to sweep off the debris before we have been able to put it back into service,” he argued.

Henry in his statement, said it was sad to even hear of the possibility of the closure of the Tinson Pen Aerodrome, a critical back-up facility to the Norman Manley Airport, because the government had failed to deliver on its promises to develop the old Vernamfield airbase in Clarendon as a major national and international air transportation hub.