LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Gerrard Smith International Airport is a joke

Monday,  September 12, 2005

Dear Sir,

I would like to comment about the Cayman Brac Airport. First, the X-ray machine has been out of service from 26 February (seven months). All carry-on bags have to be hand-searched, which takes a lot of time and brings many complaints from tourists and locals, but mostly from the tourists.

After passing this ordeal and arriving in Grand Cayman, they have to get out of the aircraft, even if it’s the same aircraft they are traveling in to their final destination, and collect their baggage. They have to re-check with the airlines, go through customs and immigration, the same thing they did on Cayman Brac, and then board the same aircraft.

We all know there are rules in the US that authorities have to follow. It seems as if those rules are only for travelers from Grand Cayman. We have an international airport. Why can’t we have the equipment that we need to operate it? I understand that a new X-ray machine is on the Brac and will soon be installed after seven months getting here. I hope it won’t take that long to be installed.

We also need a baggage X-ray machine. I understand that the Minister for Tourism wants to get this machine but that the Cayman Islands Airport Authority says no. If this machine had been in place from the opening of our airport, it would have paid for itself long ago.

Every tourist I’ve talked to says they like Cayman Brac and Little Cayman and would return, but it’s too much hassle going through Grand Cayman. So they will go to some other place. We depend on tourism to help our economy. Our economy is bad enough but the authorities are making it worse. We are losing our tourists.

We have the best diving in the Caribbean, but because our international airport does not have the right equipment, some hotels are closed and restaurants are putting people out of work. 

Cayman Brac goes back not forward. What a joke!

Talbert Tatum

    Back...