Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline, has called for a streamlined, UK-partnered approach to the Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport expansion project during his popular Honestly Speaking radio broadcast on May 12, 2025. Photo: Facebook

The government of the Virgin Islands intend to expand the T.B Lettsome International Airport. Photo: VINO/File

Reacting to recent parliamentary discussions and the financial scale of the proposed works—rumoured to be upwards of $400 million—Skelton-Cline called for realism, pragmatism, and national interest to take precedence over lofty ambitions and unproductive bureaucracy.

Competitive UK Firm 

Prefacing his arguments, he told the listening audience on his Honestly Speaking radio broadcast on May 12, 2025, “I listened carefully to the Minister for the Airport Authority, among other things, make his presentation in the House of Assembly; When the powers that be tell you that something costs $400 million, $450 million, $500 million, you know first of all, even if you're using somebody else's money, that you may not want to do that or do it that way.”

Instead, he urged the Virgin Islands government to take a more measured, incremental route. “Let me offer a suggestion I'm sure others have offered; It may be the case that $190 million, $200 million at best, for the rest of the runway. Let's start with that. Let's bite that off.”

Skelton-Cline was clear that such a shift in approach would likely require engagement with British financial oversight mechanisms.

To this end, he advocated strenuously for a “streamlined request for proposal project,” explicitly encouraging the government to invite a competitive UK firm to submit a bid “that you cannot refuse.” 

Dialogue with the Governor- Skelton-Cline

Explaining his rationale further, Skelton-Cline pointed to both national necessity and constitutional reality, since the VI is in this "almost unusual and unholy alliance" with the United Kingdom, and has to work with them, particularly on matters of financial implication.

As such, “The reason why I am suggesting that you might want to get a UK firm, investors who are prepared to spend that kind of money, is because there must be pragmatism in service to principle.”

He posited further that, “For national security reasons, we need better government. We need our locals to be full participants in the development of that process. We need our people working. We need quarries working. We need concrete trucks working. We need our stones filling in oceans....We need our EPA people. We need everybody working. Pragmatism in service to principle.”

To this end, he said the VI will need the UK's approval, and it was prudent for the government to have dialogue with with the Governor who represents the United Kingdom's interests, "and formulate a way in which this can be fast-tracked, commenced and completed, with a reasonable figure, with concessions that make sense.”