(de Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO – The state will invest an extra US$ 70 million in expanding and modernizing the J.A. Pengel airport. The plan for this has already been prepared and potential financiers have been approached through the Central Bank of Suriname (CBvS). “This is just the beginning. We have great plans to turn Suriname into a hub,” says Minister Falisi Pinas of Transport, Communication and Tourism (TCT), who spoke yesterday at the official handover of the airport’s arrival lounge and parking lot.
US$ 28.5 million has been invested so far in the airport’s modernization. For the time being, the arrival lounge, commercial center and parking lot have been handed over, while the runway has been repaved, the platform for planes has been renovated, the runway lights on the arrival side have been replaced and a backup system for electricity has been installed as well. Pinas says the project, which was prepared during the previous administration, is insufficient to actually turn the airport into an international hub. “It is still too small for our purposes,” says Timothy Mendonça, policy adviser of the Airport Management Authority, adding, “The plans cost much, but will yield much as well.”
He explains that the airport must be expanded to get more airlines with passengers from the Caribbean, South America and even Africa to Suriname. The US$70 million will be used to construct a second runway on which planes can taxi. Then the airport need not depend on just one runway, but will be able to handle more flights a day. This is also in line with international safety regulations. The departure and arrival lounges are currently apart from each other, but plans are to connect them by 2014 with airbridges, so passengers need not walk in the rain or sun anymore, Mendonça says. Lights must be placed on the departure side of the runway, and the plarform should be expanded to accommodate more planes. The fire department barracks will be moved to a more central location. Plans are to have the airbridges installed in 2014, when Suriname will host the next UNASUR heads-of-state meeting, while the other matters must be finished by 2015.
