Test flight to land at Argyle International Airport

An airplane is expected to land at the Argyle International Airport (AIA) next Thursday, and if all goes according to plan, Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves will be on that first flight.

At a public meeting of the Unity Labour Party (ULP) at Rose Hall on Wednesday night, Gonsalves told party supporters that on {{more}}November 19, a small plane will land at the AIA to test the lighting system.

“Well, you know they have been saying that small plane … going require a cross-wind runway. You see the experts come and say that is not so at all?

An official of the Caribbean Meterological Organization, in an interview last month with the Agency for Public Information, said that from analysis of five years of wind data, the crosswind component at the AIA was well within the recommendation of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

A crosswind runway will therefore not be needed.

Gonsalves said he has asked his Permanent Secretary to ask the persons doing the test flight next Thursday to give him a ride on the flight.

“…They will be landing at E T Joshua and then take off from there,” Gonsalves disclosed.

He said he hoped that the ride for him, on the test flight, could be arranged.

“I have to tell the party if I getting the ride, so that we can have a few dozen people come out to see when the Comrade come down on the test flight,” he told supporters.

The AIA is in the last stages of construction and is now estimated to officially open in 2016.