Mitchell suggests greater oversight needed at Jamaica's major airports

 

Business executive Howard Mitchell is calling for institutions that oversee operations at Jamaica's two main airports - Sangster International and Norman Manley International - to spend more time on ensuring that the operators are performing at the required standard.

 

His comment follows last week's temporary closure of the runway at the Sangster International Airport which resulted in several flights being either cancelled or diverted.

 

Hundreds of travellers were left stranded at the airport after they were informed that their flights had either been delayed or cancelled.

 

Transport Minister Daryl Vaz is today expected to receive a report on the issues that led to to the temporary closure of the runway.

 

Mr. Mitchell, a former president of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ), believes the incident arose from institutional neglect. 

 

"What I do know is this, that when you're doing any kind of technical or engineering work at an airport, you don't just have redundancy, you have triple redundancy, because this particular instance, for instance, will cost millions of dollars, not to mention the incalculable cost of reputational loss. And the other thing is that, again, it comes back to institutional neglect," he said, adding that the country "should have seen this coming".

 

Mr. Mitchell also wants the operators of Norman Manley International Airport to implement a plan to address structural issues at that facility. 

 

"Norman Manley has been plagued with structural issues, with functional issues. Simple things like bathrooms not working, ACs not working, that were allowed to decline to the point where you almost have to replace them, rather than maintain them. So I think we have to pay attention to those things, or else we're going to lose the window of opportunity that tourism is giving us now, while we build on other structural things for development," he suggested. 

 

Mr. Mitchell was speaking Sunday on Radio Jamaica's That's a Rap.