The opening of an expanded car rental and tour operator hub at Terminal B of V.C. Bird International Airport is one piece of a broader infrastructure response that the Antigua and Barbuda Airport Authority (ABAA) said is now urgently needed, as passenger volumes have already outpaced what the airport’s current configuration can comfortably handle.

ABAA Interim Chief Executive Officer Miguel Southwell, speaking to reporters following the facility’s opening, said the new hub addresses the immediate problem of congestion at the main terminal entrance, but acknowledged that the work ahead is considerably larger.

Among some of the work need, the airport authority’s CEO said the airport currently has seven jets on the ground but only four jet bridges, creating a mismatch he described as a clear indicator that the threshold for major expansion has been crossed.

“The traffic has already grown to the extent where we actually have needed to expand the terminal, and so we’re looking forward to doing that over the next few years,” Southwell said.

With Cabinet approving the commissioning of a formal master plan to map the next phase of terminal development, Southwell said the timing of that exercise will determine the scope and sequencing of how the expansion unfolds. Funding, he added, remains an outstanding variable.

The rationale for consolidating car rental companies and tour operators into the hub, he explained, goes beyond aesthetics.

Southwell said that as traffic grows, the previous arrangement where operators competed for arriving passengers in the same congested space at the terminal front was incompatible with the standard the authority is working toward.

“When a passenger arrives here, they need to have the facilities where you don’t see the previous congestion that you saw in the terminal, but rather you see an organised space that you would normally see in a world-class facility,” he said.

Beyond the new hub, Southwell outlined several other uses being developed for the old terminal building.

A section has already been modernised to house airport staff offices, and the authority is considering accommodating regional carriers such as WINAIR within the structure given the proximity of their aircraft parking.