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An aviation expert tells iWitness News that the government repeatedly did work in this section of the airport runway between August 2024 and January 2025.
An aviation expert tells iWitness News that the government repeatedly did work in this section of the airport runway between August 2024 and January 2025.
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An aviation sector worker who uses the Argyle International Airport frequently says that the government should address the issues there and stop acting as if the aerodrome is above public criticism.

The worker, an expert with over two decades of experience in their particular field, spoke to iWitness News on condition of anonymity because of their employment status.

They decided to speak to iWitness News after widespread public discussion following the recent publication by some media outlets of photographs and videos of holes in the asphalt at the EC$700 million airport, which began operating on Feb. 14, 2017.

The airport management and Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said that the photos did not reflect the current situation at the aerodrome even as Gonsalves also said that pavement work was done at the airport immediately after the budget was passed on Jan. 17.

The expert provided iWitness News with photos and videos of the runway at the airport showing that repairs were done as recently as last week.

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The expert said holes have been appearing in a particular section towards the centre of the runway over the last six months and reappearing almost as quickly as they are repaired.

The metadata on the photographs and videos show that they were taken between August 2024 and January 2025.

The expert, who has wide knowledge of the conditions at the airports in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and neighbouring islands, said they first noticed the holes in the runway in August 2024.

“It is expected that at some point a hole would appear in a runway but the question with AIA is that it does not have a lot of traffic.” 

The source noted that it was only recently that the airport began getting heavier traffic with larger carriers servicing the airport multiple times a week.  

The source further pointed out to iWitness News that the hole is not at the touchdown point, where much of the weight and impact of an aircraft is concentrated.

“That hole was all the way done the middle of the runway,” the source said, adding that there are “other minor holes” that the airport has not bothered with.

The source said that the first repair on the runway since the hole appeared in August was done in mid-September. However, a wide-body aircraft left a tyre impression in the repaired section shortly after.

“They repair on an almost daily basis. As the heavier carriers land, they would repair again. And it is the same process; just a repeat,” the source told iWitness News.

After that repair in September, the same area was repaired again in October the source told iWitness News, and provided the exact dates on which the repairs were done. The source, however, asked that those dates not be published to prevent the authorities from linking them to the information. 

“I know the dangers of this. If an aeroplane goes in a hole like that at the speed at which they taxi and land, it could blow the nose or main gear and the pilot could lose control of the aircraft,” the source said, adding that this is similar to a car with a soft tyre veering to the side on which that the tyre is located. 

“Once a pilot loses control of an aircraft, he would fight to hold it straight but anything can happen.”  

AIA
An American airline aircraft taxis to one side of the runway at Argyle International Airport on Jan. 27, 2025. (Photo: Facebook/SVGATC)

The source told iWitness News that the repairs in October began breaking up again two days later.

They said that a larger section of the runway was repaired towards the end of October, but it continued cracking and the asphalt became loose and was falling out. 

At the same time, the AIA has not published any notice on the relevant platforms (AITIS and NOTAM) to alert pilots about the conditions on the runway. 

 “They would have to literally go deep in their engineering department and the runway surface because, clearly, it is something beyond the surface. I think the reason they won’t want to is the effect of closing the runway.”

The source told iWitness News that the location of the hole, in the centre of the runway, compounds the situation. 

“What other airports have put is a displaced threshold so that if the repair is required in a certain section, they give a notice saying displaced threshold so your landing distance is reduced and a pilot would be required to fly beyond that then and land. 

“The unfortunate thing is that no international carrier would be able to land; only the smaller aeroplanes would be able to land.”

The expert told iWitness News that every airline has a safety department that looks into pilots’ complaints, including about defects on a runway.

“… and if pilots see it and determine that it is a danger to the aircraft, they can decide they are not going to go in. The hole appears in the middle of the runway so maybe pilots have determined that for the time being they can work around it.

“They can taxi left or right of it. But if you are taking off or landing, you can’t. Those are the two most dangerous parts for most pilots, regardless of the size of the aircraft.”

The source told iWitness News that the smaller airlines that service SVG, such as those that travel to the Grenadines, are not as much impacted by the hole.

AIA 250204
Argyle International Airport on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025.

They are slower and don’t need all that length of runway. They can land safely beyond that area,” the source said, adding that in pretending that there is no issue, AIA is “playing with safety. 

“The PM went to Canouan yesterday (Monday, Jan. 27). He should tell us how the hole looks. I believe he asked the pilot to show him what the hole looked like. If you go out there, because of the ruffling of features, there are several areas marked to fix,” the source told iWitness News. 

Meanwhile, speaking on NBC Radio on Wednesday, Gonsalves described as a “falsehood” the social media reports about holes in the runway at AIA, noting that the airport has put out a statement.

In a Jan. 26 statement, AIA Inc., the state-owned company that manages the airport, said it was aware of photos being circulated on social media “that depict holes in the runway.

“AlA Inc. wishes to inform the public that these photos do not reflect the current condition of the runway. The airport continues to execute regular maintenance of the aerodrome.”

The statement said AIA Inc. remains “committed to the highest standards of safety and operational excellence, and we encourage the public to rely on official sources for accurate information”.

Gonsalves further said the presence of a OneCaribbean aeroplane in the background of one of the photos proves the photos are dated. 

“Well, there’s been no plane for OneCaribbean, anywhere on the airport for a long, long time. So the physical evidence tells the lie,” Gonsalves said.

“The second thing is that that defect was not on the runway. It was in the apron, the parking area at the airport,” he said and accused some people of wishing AIA bad.

Hole at AIA
A photo of a hole in the runway at AIA.

However, the aviation expert pointed out that the photo with the OneCaribbean Aircraft in the background was of the ramp while the holes in question were on the runway itself. 

CEO asked gov’t to work on airport ‘promptly’

Gonsalves said that when he uses the airport he would call to the attention of its management anything that he sees that needs repairing or maintenance.

He further noted that in the Budget Debate in January, he pointed out the resources his government has allocated to the continued upkeep of AIA,

“In fact, in the week after we passed the budget, I was in touch with the CEO at AIA [Josette Greaves] and said to her, ‘Well, we have these things in the budget; there’s some work which we need to do so that we keep the maintenance in order, including on the runway.’ 

“By the way, no airline has stopped coming to AIA in relation to any runway matter. In all this thing, people lose sight of that very important fact.

“And when I made the call to her (AIA Inc. CEO), she said, well, yes, they were speaking to Dipcon Engineering, like before this false photo was circulated.”

The prime minister said Greaves told him he would like him to contact Dipcon to work at the airport “promptly”. 

“Because last year, you’d have gone out there and you’d have seen Dipcon working in the night, and they had the equipment there doing some work because you’ll do the work outside of the working hours.”

AIA
The government has rehabilitated taxiways at the airport.

Gonsalves said that Dipcon has done work at the airport since he contacted them after the budget was passed, adding, “… and they have some work to do. 

“And people, some people not listening, or if they listen, they just ignore what responsible authorities said.”

He said Budget 2025 contains EC$648,000 for the improvement of airfield ground lighting systems and EC$52,000 for an electrical generator.

There is also an EC$3.867 million project for pavement rehabilitation.

“We have spent on that project because I tell you, Dipcon did work last year, $2.2 million, and we have allocations in this year to spend $1.25 million. 

“… as soon as the budget was passed, DIPCON was contacted by AIA, and I myself contacted AIA, and the CEO said, ‘Well, given the demands on Dipcon’s time and they’re the people who have the expertise in dealing with this particular matter, and they were mobilised and went out.”

The prime minister said the contract with Dipcon is for the repaving of the entire Alpha Taxiway, and the repaving of approximately 75% of the Charlie Taxiway. 

“And funds for 2025 is to continue and finalise the maintenance work on the runway,” Gonsalves said, adding that more money will be allocated in Budget 2026.

He said there was an EC$2.5 million project for procurement of maintenance equipment, of which EC$631,000 is provided in Budget 2025.

The prime minister went on to detail the equipment that his government plans to buy for the airport. 

“And when I reported to Parliament, … this woulda sound boring to some people, as it probably sounding now. The good thing that this gleeful false propaganda generated is that now that I talk about them, people say, ‘Well, boy, maybe I should listen a bit more closer when we’re talking about these things.’ 

“But as they say, lies travel around the world at such a pace that truth finds it difficult to catch up, to even put on its socks, much less its shoes…”

Ralph Gonsalves
Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves in a Nov. 28, 2024 photo.

PM suggests workers report issues to AIA, not the public

He went on to suggest that airport workers should inform the management, rather than the public about issues at the airport.

“If there’s a problem, you working at the airport, let’s say as a pilot, you see something, draw it to the attention of the people responsible,” the prime minister said.

“If you’re at the fire station and you see something, there’s a channel for that. Not because you didn’t get promoted in the last or the previous round of promotion, you must have some malice about somebody…

“You’re one of the 450 people who get a job there, but you have so much bile inside of your stomach that you prefer to see if you can say anything or do anything to get rid of Ralph. That’s more important to you than your job in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Some people are just completely crazy,” the prime minister said.

iWitness News visited AIA on Wednesday and observed a significant amount of dust in the area runway identified by the expert when a wide-body aircraft landed. 

Another expert told iWitness News on Saturday that the dust suggests that that section of the runway was breaking up and need to be resurfaced or that it was recently repaired.

That expert, however, said that the sweeper at the airport had not been working for months, and two local airlines had to procure blowers to clean the runway to prevent damage to their aircraft engines.

iWitness News, however, pointed out that Gonsalves had said that he had been told that the sweeper was not working but when he called the airport, he was sent a video showing it in operation. 

“He’s been misinformed. If it was working, the actual brush on the back has been worn out for months,” the source told iWitness News.

They added that while much attention is being paid to AIA, the bigger problem is in Canouan, “where the entire runway needs to be repaved.

“Canouan is full of holes,” the expert told iWitness News, adding that one source said that the repairs there could cost US$25 million and the investors are unwilling to foot the bill.

On Monday, the Embassy of Cuba in St. Vincent and the Grenadines said that six Cuban engineers will help with the maintenance and modernisation work at the airport.

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3 Comments

  1. emperorharriss says:

    The problem is the government knew there was a problem with the runway. Peter Binose who was the most amazing expose writer to ever have come out of SVG wrote “the runway is unfit and dangerous for heavy aircraft to use. The runway has been dug up already three times and a hundred meters of it is suspect due to being built on filled ground that will not compact due to being laid on swamp and water springs” He was writing about the very same section of runway. He wrote a whole article on the subject https://www.stvincenttimes.com/argyle-international-airport-the-truth-at-last/

    My own advice is to keep the Cubans well away from the airport and bring competent US or EU engineers to look at it, people who have real experience. The Cubans cannot even maintain their own airports, they are falling apart. The Cubans will be milking SVG again while sitting on the ‘Comrades’ milking stool.

    Reply

  2. I hope all who are reading did not miss this , vital, what should be public information thjs is how gunsalves want to have it . He went on to suggest that airport workers should inform the management, rather than the public about issues at the airport.

    Reply

  3. Very interesting detailed report. Shows the challenges that this facility must be facing. It is comforting to know that engineers are being brought in as maintenance is a perennial problem at any facility.

    Reply

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