Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter

The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) will need at least two terms in government to complete its proposed plans for the Vernamfield aerodrome in Clarendon.

Mike Henry, Minister of Transport and Works, told The Gleaner yesterday that he was looking at a timeframe of about 10 years to transform the Clarendon location into a major trans-shipment hub and the country's third international airport.

Not a replacement

According to Mr. Henry, the development of Vernamfield is not to replace Kingston's Norman Manley International Airport or the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, but instead, will work as an addition to the present locations, in order to revitalise certain aspects of the country's economy.

"[Vernamfield] is one with a focus of a developmental plan that relates to an area that's the size of Manhattan," said Mr. Henry, "So what it is, is a four-tier development taking different cost elements into account."

Mr. Henry explained that the vision for Vernamfield involved having the departure of air-wing flights out of that area. "So your air wing will be located in that zone and areas of Vernamfield are already marked out for that and agreed to," he added.

"The second concept is where our airplanes are refurbished," he said, "Right now this is being done in Europe."

The minister said the aim was to divert this process to a location with a runway that was longer than the two current airports. So eventually Air Jamaica aircraft would be repaired in Jamaica, rather than in Europe.

athaliah.reynolds.@gleanerjm.com