Just my wife and I.
---------- Post added November 3rd, 2014 at 05:52 PM ----------
Why don't they just fly a couple more flights to the Brac and use the commercial runway, why would that be difficult? For that matter, if it is difficult, they could boat people over.
The short answer is that the Sister Islands seem to be just like every sleepy little town in America. Most folks who live there are happy to see the small town stay just the way it is. But there is always some dreamer with fantastic plans for how to totally redo the town and make it into the best (insert claim to fame here) hot spot in the country. The dreamer is usually a politician, real estate developer, or construction company owner who expects to profit directly from the whole process of the makeover, moreso than the end result of it. But he or she never stops trying to sell everybody else on how great Podunkville will be if they can just find a way to fund this one more project. Many times, the new project is to replace something (like an airport) that is perfectly serviceable as it is, but the dreamer isn't going to make any money leaving things as they are...he needs that new airport/convention center/recreation center/insert project here built so he can build a golf course and mega resort casino on the old property and have more ___ to attract more visitors. Not to mention that he owns the land where the new project will be built and hasn't had any luck selling it to somebody who wants to build a golf course and mega casino resort.
The Brac has had several hotels built with the idea that something else would eventually happen to draw in droves of new tourists. With Divi, they really wanted to build a casino. With the Alexander, it was draining the pond and building a marina. The claim all along has been that the hotels there are starved by not having enough airlift capacity. The reality is that there just isn't that much to draw people to the Brac that can't be found cheaper or better somewhere else. I don't say that to start a war over how great the Brac is. I like the place, I get the draw and know that lots of people love it there. But it is trying to fill a niche as a hybrid of the development of Grand and the small island seclusion of LC that doesn't fit either end of that spectrum very well. The folks that want great diving on a small quiet island go to LC, while the folks that want more nightlife and dining options to go with good diving go to GC. Brac is left somewhere in the middle being harder to get to than GC, while not offering enough nightlife and dining for a wide swath of folks, while the folks who want peace and quiet and solitude find it easier to come by on LC, not to mention having better diving there. The problem is that they already committed to building a much larger airport on the Brac and have upgraded it to international standards, while the number of successful resorts on the Brac versus LC shows where the tourists want to be.
So they are left trying to fulfill promises to expand airlift into the Brac, and to do so, they are wanting to funnel the traffic from LC through Brac to keep the planes full. The downside is that for those wanting to go to and from LC, it is one more flight and one more plane change (albeit fairly short flights and easy changes). Unless something changes in the next few years, I really can't see them finding the momentum and public support to build a whole new airport on LC, and frankly, I hope it never happens. I would much prefer that they work out a deal with the existing airport owner to lengthen the runway and add the features necessary to meet the requirements if they are dead set on making changes. The Caribbean is full of overdeveloped little islands where everybody passes the time wishing the place was the way it was 30 years ago. LC is still that place the way it used to be, and it would be a shame to ruin it trying to make it just like everywhere else.
