Editorial | Transport in development

The recent report of big losses being sustained by Jamaica’s government-run aerodromes highlights both the collapse of internal airline travel and the government’s struggle to breathe life into a limping domestic aviation sector.

That, however, is only one element of the story. Its broader statement is of something over which The Gleaner has consistently lamented: the failure of Jamaica’s Government to develop a full-scale, integrated transportation policy that covers not only modes of travel, but plans for where people will live, work and recreate with efficiency and comfort.

Looked at from this perspective, how the Government responds to the September 13 flood in Kingston – which highlighted the capital’s drainage crisis – is not removed from this issue.

As was reported by The Gleaner, over the past six years, from 2020 to 2025 inclusive, it cost the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ) nearly three times as much (salaries are not in the costs) to maintain the four operational aerodromes than it earned from them. That is J$705.77 million in income, against J$1.87 billion in expenditure.

The four facilities are Tinson Pen, in Kingston; Negril in Westmoreland; Ken Jones in the eastern parish of Portland; and Ian Fleming International Airport at Boscobel, St Mary, near to the tourist town of Ocho Rios, across the border in the parish of St Ann.

Ian Fleming, in accord with its name, does get some international traffic. However, the near J$644 million it cost in upkeep over the period was 12 times the J$52.8 million the facility earned from its operations.

Moreover, Ian Fleming’s earnings were a mere eight per cent of the income of Tinson Pen, considered the hub of the domestic aviation sector.

CLOSE TINSON PEN

The Government plans to close Tinson Pen to accommodate the expansion of the Kingston transshipment port, which is across the road to its west. This is part of Jamaica’s effort to become part of the global logistics network. Air, road and sea transportation are important to this initiative.

The Gleaner does not question the AAJ assertion that, despite the losses, the aerodromes are “vital components of Jamaica’s national air transport infrastructure”.

However, like other taxpayers who cover losses, we would appreciate a clear picture not only of the aviation elements thereof, but the full concept of the transportation infrastructure and the place of the aerodrome within it. It is important, too, to be clear how the buildout of this infrastructure will be informed by strategic policy.

Some things are known in bits and pieces, rather than in a comprehensive policy strategy.

The two international airports, Norman Manley in Kingston and Sangster in Montego Bay, both owned by the AAJ but leased to foreign operators, are to undergo major upgrades. The Government has talked about a new international airport in Negril, which the AAJ’s CEO Audley Deidrick recently said could be ready in five to seven years. The rationale for the proposed Negril international airport is the long time it takes for tourists to travel the 80 kilometres to that resort town from the Sangster airport at Montego Bay in the east.

But there is also a plan to build a new highway from Montego Bay, going west, to bypass the existing, often congested, seaside road. This is in line with the development of several highways across the island.

TALKED VAGUELY

Daryl Vaz, the transport minister, has also talked, though up to now vaguely, of plans to revitalise internal aviation travel.

All of this is possibly good and worthy stuff. What, however, is missing, is policy coherence – how the whole things hang together?

A coherent policy will take into account transportation’s pivotal role in the national economy, including how goods and services are moved, as well as how people commute to and from their jobs, to school, to places of play or just to get on with their lives.

It is in this context that The Gleaner has long argued for a policy that perceives transportation not as an afterthought, but central in a longer-term development strategy.

Increasingly, housing developments take place in suburban areas, requiring the construction of infrastructure to support their existence. Yet, existing roads have to be expanded or new ones built to ensure connection between the new communities and major centres where critical services are accessed.

Meanwhile, many areas of towns and cities crumble under the weight of urban blight. In those areas where new construction takes place, like the high-rise buildings of Kingston/St Andrew, infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. Then comes the flooding after a few hours of rainfall – as was the case in Kingston.

Additionally, with a public transport system that isn’t fit for purpose, and people concerned for their personal safety, greater numbers of Jamaicans are opting to own vehicles. Annually, Jamaica spends more than US$500 million (J$81 billion) importing vehicles; more than US$200 (J$32 billion) million more goes to spare parts. Another US$300 million (nearly J$49 billion) is spent on fuel for ground transport.

Twice daily commuters (mostly a single person in a vehicle) endure long stretches in traffic gridlock, costing hundreds of millions of potentially productive man hours annually.

Minister Vaz must bring new thinking to these issues.