NAME OF FEATURE | THE GLEANER | SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2024 10 AAJ 50TH ANNIVERSARY FEATURE 50 years of travel sustainability FIFTY YEARS in business is no easy feat. So to be an integral part of the travel industry that keeps locals and visitors of this island alike secure, safe and satisfied is truly a testament to the commitment and creativity of the management and staff of the Airports Authority of Jamaica (AAJ). The man at its helm for nearly a decade is Audley Deidrick who is no stranger to hard work and being in charge of multiple operations in the airports ecosystem which must be fused seamlessly to ensure that all the airports in Jamaica run smoothly. Mr Deidrick was gracious enough to answer a few questions about the AAJ’s monumental 50th anniversary milestone and its journey towards the next 50 years. The AAJ is celebrating its 50th anniversary. What are your thoughts on this significant milestone, and how does it feel to be part of this celebration? I am extremely proud to be a part of this celebration at this time. I say it from time to time that developments across the globe seem to take place or be moving in geometrical proportion. They move more aggressively in a shorter period of time, and I’m convinced that the period when I joined the AAJ in 2005 and even more so when I became President in 2015 have seen geometrical growth and steps in the development of our facilities and the role that we play in Jamaica travel and tourism industry and Jamaica’s economy. That in particular fills me with great pride and joy. Those before me played their part and executed their roles, including the Immediate President before me, Mr Earl Richards, who served for 18 years. They have all laid the foundation for what you see being manifested today. What have been some of the major challenges and rewards during your tenure? So, I came to the AAJ in January 2005. I like to tell people that my employment began on New Year’s Day but it’s not quite so, it’s just the effective date. It has been a very stimulating, rewarding and fulfilling journey. I started as the Vice-President of Finance. At this time, the AAJ had just completed the privatisation of the Sangster International Airport in 2003, and we were concentrating on merging the activities at NMIA, along with the Airports Authority’s Head Office, so my job was to merge two finance departments into one and also begin spearheading plans for the upgrading of Norman Manley International Airport to take it into privatisation. So, that was one of my first major duties which I took with both hands. My first big job was to get the financing to do the upgrading and expansion of NMIA and at that time I told people the story that our bank account then at AAJ had the paltry sum of US$5 million and the project was US$60 million. Additionally, the airport needed to start the project in 2006 as Jamaica was busily preparing for World Cup Cricket 2007 right here in Jamaica. It was one of the biggest sporting events in the world and we needed to get this airport substantially upgraded and expanded to accommodate the traffic that would be flowing through here. And so, I applied what my colleagues refer to as ‘financial engineering’ to utilise a term sheet from a multilateral lending agency and went to financial institutions to secure the financing needed by way of bridging loans, without the use of government guarantees. How do AAJ strategic plans align with our national development? Our airports are powerful vehicles for national development. It accommodates not only Jamaican travellers but our tourism traffic, and tourism represents over 80% of our traffic. Tourism is one of the most powerful domestic products of our country. It sustains our economy, and our airports are one of our main facilitators of the growth that has been taking place in tourism. How does Jamaica’s aviation industry align with Jamaica’s Vision 2030? This speaks to prosperity, economic growth through the expansion of domestic and international air transport infrastructure and services, hence the growth of aviation in its role to drive Vision 2030. That is my interpretation of the vision and that is what we are doing. Airports don’t exist in isolation, and we see ours as a huge part of the tourism growth and ultimately the thrust of economic growth of this country. Could you outline the current route development and expansion initiatives for the airports in Jamaica? Our tourism has two components: stopover and cruise. Stopover is the larger of the two. Historically North America represents the bulk of our aviation traffic into Jamaica with roughly 70%. Canada represents another 15% and another 10% out of the UK. From time to time, you hear guarded language that while we appreciate the economic flow from the North, there is some concern about the major dependency on one or two source markets as it can be risky. And so, they would like to ‘trend down’ that large US percentage, and by trending down, they do not mean reducing the numbers from the US but rather to expand and diversify the traffic into other major destinations while retaining and growing the US market. This was the talk just before COVID-19. They would involve looking at markets in Asia, some from Africa and another portion from Latin America. If we can get that spread of tourism traffic, that would represent phenomenal growth in our travel and tourism numbers generally.
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