USVI Airport Modernization Project Leaps Forward as Global Players Descend on Territory For Industry Forum, Facility Tours

Wednesday's gathering of over 60 professionals from the aviation, construction and finance sectors at the Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas was hailed as a success by officials from the Virgin Islands Port Authority (VIPA), the Department of Tourism, and by Governor Albert Bryan Jr. himself.  The industry forum was a key step in the move towards a public-private partnership that would allow for the development of both the Cyril E. King facility and St. Croix’s Henry Rohlsen Airport. The plan, according to Larry Belinsky, managing director of Frasca & Associates LLC, who is consulting on the project, is to have one operator lease the terminals of both airports, with agreements to conduct and manage both airfield and landside operations. As VIPA Executive Director Carlton Dowe took pains to note several times during the forum and the press briefing that followed, the authority, and thus by extension the government of the Virgin Islands, would continue to own the infrastructure outrig...