Airport Airfield upgrade project rescheduled

The Cayman Islands Airports Authority (CIAA), which owns and operates the Owen Roberts International Airport (ORIA) and the Charles Kirkconnell International Airport (CKIA), announced on Wednesday that their plans to commence runway upgrade works at ORIA this summer have been rescheduled due to unexpected extended contract negotiations.

The airfield upgrade project consists of five sub-projects, namely:

• Milling and Re-Paving of the existing Runway surface
• A Runway Extension to the west of threshold 08
• Filling of the ponds within the airfield perimeter
• Establishing a robust airfield perimeter road
• Expanding the aircraft parking ramp in an easterly direction to provide additional aircraft parking

Earlier this year, it was announced that the airport runway would be closed for eight consecutive weeks on a Tuesday, starting in September 2019, to facilitate the repaving and extension of the runway as part of this next phase of continued improvements to the airport infrastructure. However, due to these unforeseen circumstances, the milling and re-paving of the existing runway surface works will have to be rescheduled. The airport runway will now remain open on those eight Tuesdays in September and October, and the works will be carried out at a later date, in the evenings, outside of the normal operating hours of the airport.

“We are very grateful for the traveling public’s ongoing cooperation as we work to improve the infrastructure at ORIA, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience these changes to the airfield upgrade project timeline may cause,” said CIAA CEO Mr. Albert Anderson.

Other aspects of the airport airfield upgrade, such as the ramp expansion, the works of filling the ponds and establishing a robust airfield perimeter road, are expected to continue as planned and will not be affected.