New airport in Ambergris will not upstage P.G.I.A.

Manuel Heredia Jr.

Earlier this week, the Government of Belize signed a memorandum of understanding with developer International Airport Alliance Belize Limited to develop and manage a hundred-million U.S. dollar full service international airport in North Ambergris Caye, to be named after tourism pioneer Efrain Guerrero. San Pedro native and booster Manuel Heredia, the Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, is doubly pleased about the project, which he says will only enhance Ambergris Caye’s already glittering reputation. But not, he maintained, at the expense of the Philip Goldson International Airport, which has been in service since 1943 and is protected from losing any of its high-volume traffic.

Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation

“That group has a track record of doing several international airports including most recently in Curacao, recently completed. We presume that when this starts and it’s completed, this supposed to be able to accommodate twelve wide-bodied aircraft. Particularly, it is more envisioned for charters and private aircraft. But commercial airlines are already talking to us [about] what [is] the possibility about daily flights, passenger flights; that is yet to be discussed but at this point it is mostly charters and private aircraft. We have an agreement that any flight that is destined for P.G.I.A., cannot be diverted anywhere else; so anything that will happen has to be something new.”

Aaron Humes

“So it would be new carriers or new flights from a particular carrier?”

Manuel Heredia, Jr.

“At this point it would be new carriers, particularly charter carriers, and private aircrafts.”