Progress or Disruption? New Airport Plan Divides Ambergris Caye

A proposed six-hundred-million-dollar airport promises to prepare Ambergris Caye for future growth. But for many residents and business owners, the project raises an immediate concern: will progress eventually force the closure of the John Greif II Airport at the heart of San Pedro? Some say moving commercial flights north could increase travel times, disrupt businesses and weaken emergency access. Government insists any transition would happen gradually, but stakeholders are questioning whether they are helping shape the plan or simply being told what is coming. News Five’s Paul Lopez reports.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

“Residents of Ambergris Caye say the possible closure of the John Grief II Airport could have far reaching consequences for tourism, business and emergency access. Tonight we examine those concerns and growing questions surrounding one of Belize’s busiest domestic airports.”

 

Father Eduardo Montemayor, Pastor, San Pedro Catholic Church

“You know the conversation changed from we have a great idea we are going to put a new airport up there for private planes and I said great, I am a pilot. That is wonderful. It is going to be excellent. But suddenly they are saying, let’s close this airport down here in the next two to three years or eventually and at that moment that is a whole different narrative, because that is quite unwise. Why, because it will really hurt the town.”

 

Father Eduardo Montemayor has led the San Pedro Catholic Church for the past six years. The church is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Primary School, located directly across from the existing airport. It plans to move the school farther south to expand its facilities and ease congestion. The church then hopes to develop the current property into a shopping center built around the airport’s continued operation.

 

Father Eduardo Montemayor
“All the income will go to education nationwide, not just here, nationwide. How will it also help? The middle street could literally just go right through the property, and the property there nearest to traffic could be used as parking.”

 

The concern extends beyond the church. Jennie Staine, executive chef at Elvi’s Kitchen, says a new airport may have value someday, but she believes San Pedro has more urgent problems to address.

 

Jennie Staine, Executive Chef, Elvi’s Kitchen

“To me, this new airport, it is not that it is not good for San Pedro, but it is not the correct time, maybe in fifty years. San Pedro, as it is, has so many other things it needs to get fixed. San Pedro was not planned properly to start with. Us that live here all our lives, when we go through that street where Tropic is, we say, ‘Oh, it is getting busy,’ because we see the traffic we have around Tropic Air and Maya Island. To us, that signifies a lot, to all of us. And it will be missed, because it will be very far away.”

 

The proposed airport would sit near Secret Beach on land owned by the Social Security Board. The project is estimated at six hundred million dollars, with proposed financing from the Inter-American Development Bank. But reaching the location from central San Pedro highlights one of the residents’ biggest concerns.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

“We are currently at the proposed site for the controversial multimillion-dollar airport in the Secret Beach area of Ambergris Caye. It took us about thirty minutes to drive here from central San Pedro. Some sections of the road are concrete, but a large portion remains underdeveloped.”

 

Andre Perez, the area representative for Belize Rural South, is defending the project. He confirms that operations at the John Grief II Airport would eventually end, but says that would not happen immediately.

 

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South
“And I will share with you that we had a very fruitful meeting at BTIA with the mayor to speak on that matter, and I did clarify that in that way. We are talking about a phased approach. It cannot be that we are looking at closing the airport immediately in the next two or three years. So we have to consider them in terms of their plan. Certainly, looking at the year 2030 is not something we cannot discuss. But my answer will be the phased approach, and let the market decide. Eventually, as the traffic moves up north, we decide what will happen with this airport, in consultation with all stakeholders.”

 

But that word, “consultation,” is now at the center of the dispute. Stakeholders say the San Pedro Town Council presented the project several months ago, but they argue that a presentation is not the same as giving the community a meaningful say in the final decision.

 

Paul Lopez
“Is consultation presentation, or is consultation listening and putting into action what the position of residents and stakeholders is?”

 

Andre Perez

“Presentation and consultation can be the same. When you make a presentation, it is when we hear you. And I heard someone say that when there was a presentation, it was not consultation. It was the time for you to speak, ask questions, because it was presented. Time to say, ‘Listen, this is my concern. But at some point in time, we have to understand that I have a mandate.”

 

For now, government says the shift would happen gradually and in consultation with stakeholders. But residents say the real test will be whether their concerns can change the plan before the future of the John Grief II Airport is decided. Paul Lopez for News Five.

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: