AIA recorded a profit in 2024, says PM

THE ARGYLE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (AIA) recorded a profit in 2024 of EC$4.05 million, and if this continues, the government subvention will not longer be required.

“I just want to say that this is a capital project which has transformed this country, a capital project which no government before this had thought could be done, and which we built in the teeth of relentless opposition by the New Democratic Party until it became clear that it was happening, and then they began to fall in line,” Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves said in Parliament on Monday, April 28, 2028.

He was responding to a question from Opposition Leader, Dr Godwin Friday on the annual cost of operating the airport, and how much of that operating cost was paid from money earned by the AIA.

The Prime Minister said in 2024, operating revenue rose to $28 million, and after accounting for operating expenditures of $18 million, the airport achieved an operating profit, before subvention, of approximately $4.05 million.

Gonsalves, who spearheaded the construction of the airport that opened on February 14, 2017, said that during its establishment it was understood that the AIA would require financial support for the first four years of its operations, as traffic volumes would initially be insufficient to cover expenses.

However, unforeseen disruptions, including the global COVID-19 pandemic which began in 2019; the explosive volcanic eruption of La Soufrière in 2021; the collapse of LIAT in 2020, among other issues, extended the airport’s dependence on a government subvention.

He said that in 2021 for instance, the subvention was $11.6 million because that was the year of the COVID-19 outbreak and the volcanic eruptions and the airport was basically closed.

“We also, in order to attract greater traffic, regional traffic…in the period when it was slow, we reduced the departure tax by 50%, reducing the extent to which those revenues will be made available for AIA,” Gonsalves explained.

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