People’s Leadership Movement (PLM) leader Mark H. Vanterpool says he personally supports the idea of Anegada having a “very nice and better airport,” but remains unconvinced by proposals that would route most visitors through the northern island before transferring them to Tortola and the rest of the territory. Photo: Internet Source

In his view, the logistics of landing most international visitors on Anegada and then moving them by plane or boat to Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke and other islands do not yet add up. Photo: Facebook

Speaking on the Talking Points program on Monday, September 28, 2026, Mark H. Vanterpool stated that, “I have to admit, I am a supporter of Anegada having a very nice and better airport.” Photo: Facebook

Speaking on the Talking Points program on Monday, September 28, 2026, Vanterpool stated, “I have to admit, I am a supporter of Anegada having a very nice and better airport.”  

However, he added, “I don’t think I have been able to accept the majority of the passengers who will come into the BVI and then come to Anegada and then be transferred to the BVI.” 

In his view, the logistics of landing most international visitors on Anegada and then moving them by plane or boat to Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Jost Van Dyke and other islands do not yet add up.

“I don’t know how that will work,” he says. “It probably can work, and I am usually open to ideas. So if someone can present it to me in a way that I can hear it working.”

Preservation concern

Beyond the operational question, Vanterpool raises a second, equally important issue: protecting at least one or two of the territory’s islands from overdevelopment.

“A major airport in Anegada, that means that Anegada as the last beautiful bastion in the Caribbean,” he said, warning that large-scale air access could accelerate hotel projects, land sales, and infrastructure that would alter the island’s low-density, nature-focused appeal.

Anegada, VI’s northernmost and second-largest island by land area, is known for its flat coral-and-limestone terrain, extensive reefs, mangroves, and long stretches of relatively undeveloped beach.

For Vanterpool, that character is part of what makes the territory competitive as a destination, and he argues that planners must weigh short-term growth against long-term environmental and brand risks.

Vanterpool’s comments come amid a long-running and contentious debate over airport expansion in the British Virgin Islands, where the main international gateway, Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport on Beef Island near Tortola, has been the focus of repeated proposals to extend the runway and increase capacity.