PM says lack of international airport hampering Dominica’s growth

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit says the lack of an international airport has retarded Dominica\'s development and defended the decision of his administration to upgrade the existing Meville Hall airport.



Skerrit, addressing nationals who have returned home to participate in activities marking the island’s 31st anniversary of political independence from Britain, said that a comprehensive document for an international airport had now been developed, according to a report on www.cananews.net.



Skerrit said the decision to make improvements to the Melville Hall airport should be regarded as a positive sign for the island “because as it is now and as it was before our airport closes at five o’ clock every afternoon.



“There is no way you could take Dominica to the next level if we do not improve on air access to Dominica. There are some in the country who are criticising what is happening and say we should have gone straight into building an international airport.



“But we have waited for 25 years before we started anything about the airport, so if we had done land night many years ago…I would assure them we would be speaking about the actual construction of an international airport,” Skerrit said, adding that his administration was now seeking “to address the short to medium term challenge …which is a lack of night landing in Dominica.”



“The long-term solution you all agree and (which has) been entrenched in the Growth and Social Protection Strategy Paper, which is the blueprint for Dominica’s economic and social development, we have in this document a clearly articulated view on our position in support of an international airport,” Skerrit said.



Dominica became an independent country on November 3, 1978.