San Pedro Council to Briceño Administration: Don’t Close Our Airport
The San Pedro Town Council has formally voted to oppose the closure of the island’s existing airport.
The council said it recognises how important the airport is to residents, businesses and the tourism industry, and that it will make that case to the Government of Belize and other authorities.
“No decision to close or relocate the existing airport has been made.”
It said a proposed new airport is only one part of a much larger development concept for Ambergris Caye. Many planning, technical and regulatory requirements would have to be met, it said, before a proposal could even move to formal consideration.
Prime Minister John Briceño said last week that the idea of replacing the John Greif II Municipal Airport has been under discussion since 2020. He said flights into San Pedro keep increasing, and the Ministry of Tourism continues to grow the industry.
“We have to be looking at five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now.”
Briceño said the current airport cannot be expanded, which rules out larger planes. He said local airlines have been part of the discussions and that the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has been studying how and where a new facility could be built.
“The San Pedro Municipal Airport as it is cannot be expanded, so you cannot get bigger planes to fly into that municipal airport.”
The prime minister said the IDB has to finish its study and present it to him as the minister responsible for civil aviation and finance. He would then take it to the airlines, the town council and others.
“It’s a decision that we may have to make, but we’re not there yet.”
