MONTEGO BAY, St James — MBJ Airports Limited, operators of Sangster International Airport (SIA) in St James, has set aside US$118 million (about $18.9 billion) for development projects under a 2026-2030 master plan aimed at supporting growth in passenger and traffic flow.

The announcement was made by MBJ Airports CEO Shane Munroe during the entity’s biannual virtual airport forum on Wednesday.

Future projects include development of a departure promenade and canopy, expansion of the arrivals area and extension of the east concourse.

The departure promenade and canopy will allow departing passengers to move from private vehicles and bus drop-off kerbs across a canopy-covered plaza equipped with kiosk islands, and then through the existing terminal façade, to enter the check-in area.

Additional entrance doors that lead to check-in, or directly to boarding pass control will be provided into the central expansion area, protected by the continuous canopy. A food and beverage area will also be added. This development is expected to create a covered expansion to the east and south of the check-in plaza that will become available this year.

“The goal, certainly, is that this should be a very welcoming space. Our intention is that this is a space that, even if you’re travelling, you will feel welcome and wish to visit this year to partake of the food and beverage and other amenities that will be on offer,” stated Munroe.

Meanwhile work of the southern side of the arrivals area is expected to provide enlarged facilities that will include hotel lounges as well as an external facility for commercial bus operations.

“This is also a very important project for us, enlarging facilities specifically designed to accommodate the increased passenger volumes,” stated Munroe.

He noted that this was in preparation for the expected addition of more than 10,000 new hotel rooms via several world-renowned international hotel brands that are entering the Jamaican market.

“This project will see additional hotel lounges, dedicated spaces for the many hotel brands that operate in Jamaica today and those that have been recently announced,” said the CEO.

Munroe also told the forum that areas currently allocated to ground transportation, including Knutsford Express, will be relocated.

“We are speaking to all our ground transportation operators whether it be buses and the various vehicles that make our hotel transfers and certainly in that including the passenger flow through arrivals. We previously focused on departures but our intention, once completed, is that we would have brought that same experience to the arrival’s journey coming through immigration,” he explained.

He also provided details on expansion of the east concourse which will see additional lounge seating and boarding operations in the departures section of the airport.

Munroe said work is currently being done on expansion of the north and south sections, but the east concourse will now be extended even more in that direction.

The CEO said the main driver for the development is the need for additional gates as highlighted in a study done in crafting the MBJ’s master plan.

“The majority of our flights arrive between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm. We are seeing and projecting the need for additional gates at MBJ,” Munroe explained.

Other major projects planned for 2026-2030 are the chute system replacement, implementation of HBS security screening machines, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) air handling unit (AHU) upgrade, rehabilitation of runway, apron and taxiways, baggage claim and customs upgrade as well as cargo terminal upgrade.

There are also plans to install automated screening lanes, apron and taxiway markings re-striping, passenger security screening, automated screening lanes and acquiring of fire trucks.