The extension to the Terrance B. Lettsome Airport will enable commercial jets to fly nonstop directly to and from the eastern seaboard of the United States. Photo: Reuben Stoby/VINO

The Embraer 170 is built to carry some 70 passengers. Photo: Wikipedia

“The Brazilians have manufactured an airplane, the Embraer 170 (E-170) that could carry around 75, 78 passengers from Miami to the BVI with the airport that we have exactly where it is. So we don’t need to expand the airport immediately in order to have direct flights to the mainland,” commented Mr. Smith during the radio talk show Umoja on January 19, 2012.

Premier and Minister of Finance Dr. D. Orlando Smith in his budget address on January 17, 2012 in the House of Assembly said air lift is a concern to the Territory and that Government has already made a decision on the initial design of an extension to the Terrance B. Lettsome Airport, which will enable commercial jets to fly nonstop directly to and from the eastern seaboard of the United States, and for corporate class aircraft such as the Gulfstream V to fly directly to Western Europe.

But according to Mr. Cromwell Smith, the local carrier VI Airlink would facilitate airlift to and from US ports once it is able to acquire the E-170 aircraft and given the assistance that American Eagles gets. “So we are right now in a position to have at least two planes and I saw the pictures of the planes and I saw the specifications and everything and these are some beautiful looking planes...Nothing would give me more pride than to see Neville (Braithwaite) coming down, out of the cockpit of one of these planes and the tourists getting off at the airport during the inaugural flight....I really looking forward to that and it’s not going to take a lot. The same concessions and incentives and assistance that the governments, past and present, have given to American Eagle, all the brothers want is that same assistance,” Mr. Smith added.

According to the Wikipedia Encyclopaedia, The Embraer E-Jets are a series of narrow-body, twin-engine, medium-range, jet airliners produced by Embraer, a Brazilian aerospace conglomerate that produces commercial, military, and corporate aircraft. Announced at the Paris Air Show in 1999, and entering production in 2002, the aircraft series has been a success. As of June 30, 2011, there is a backlog of 261 firm orders for the E-Jets and 658options. The manufacturer reported that 742 units had been delivered by June 30, 2011, and predicted that by the end of 2016, more than 1,100 units would be delivered.

Meanwhile, On December 20, 2011, VI Airlink signed an agreement with US air regulator, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), to have its 13-passenger Beechcraft King Air 100 aircraft do charter flights to the US. The agreement is seen as a breakthrough for VI Airlink, who has long been pushing to receive permission to fly to US ports.

“This is a great development and of course it makes it even more possible and more probable than ever to airlift Chinese tourists from Jamaica to the BVI, from Santo Domingo to the BVI, so it opens up a whole new opportunity for our local businessmen, the VI Airlink, our company that is in our national security interest, and we have all these opportunities to increase our market share of Tourism. So this is something that I think the Government need to hop on right away, get them planes from South America, get them brothers hooked up with all them connections...” Mr. Smith added.