Plans to utilise Concorde Experience as commercial centre
Chief Executive Officer of Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) Inc., Hadley Bourne, says in addition to the money already pumped into upgrading Concorde Experience, plans are in train to utilise it as a commercial centre.
He was responding to a query from Member of Parliament for Christ Church West, Dr William Duguid, about planned use for the grounded aircraft, especially since Barbados was among “four or five countries” with a Concorde.
The team from the Ministry of Tourism and International Transport, led by Minister Ian Gooding-Edghill, was in the Well of the House of Assembly as debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2026 continued.
The ministry has been allocated $31 572 453 under Head 27.
Bourne said coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley had suggested using it as a testing area, but he indicated to both her and then Minister, Senator Lisa Cummins, there were other plans for the facility.
“We recognised, that within the main terminal and the growth in the air-to-sea sector, that the terminal was really over capacity. So we initially spent – in the previous financial year – $6 million in renovating the facility to seat between six and eight hundred passengers. That proved to be quite successful and I think we’ve actually increased the capacity to 900 seats this year,” he said.
Bourne said the stakeholders and those in the cruise sector in particular were happy with the work that was done, adding that chairman of the Barbados Port Inc., David Jean-Marie, could attest to this.
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