“Any failure with respect and regard to the airport development, I have to take, if not all the blame, full responsibility. It was my portfolio and I was the one who should have gotten it done,” Dr Pickering said on the Honestly Speaking radio programme recently.

Dr Pickering declined to confirm, however, whether an alleged personality conflict between himself and other serving ministers at the time led to the stagnation of the project.

“When you become a member of Cabinet, you have to sign an oath of confidentiality and as much as I would like to say this and say that, it will be remiss of me to say what I can’t say,” Dr Pickering said in relation to that reported conflict.

“I’m not here to lay blame on anybody’s feet or to cast aspersions or anything. Both individually and collectively, we failed as a government to get the airport project done,” he added.

Dr Pickering said based on the information he has seen, there is no choice with regard to getting the airport expansion done if the BVI wanted to build its economy and take it to another level as air access is extremely important in achieving this.

“It is the number-one complaint from people coming to the BVI, both for pleasure and for business,” Dr Pickering said. “So, the issue with respect to whether we need an airport expansion is not a question anymore. It’s something that is accepted that has to be done.”

Dr Pickering further said there were pros and cons for both options that were looked at in the end.

However, he said based on the overall cost and an examination of the impact to the territory, it was finally decided to extend the runway at both the eastern and western ends as it stands.

He said the recommendation was for an additional 500 feet to the west and approximately 2,500 feet to the east, both of which included filling in some amount of the ocean.

We are in a race against time

Dr Pickering noted that regardless of the hesitancy surrounding the cost back when it was first raised more a decade ago, the expansion still needed to happen, even as costs continue to escalate at this time.

“We put ourselves in a race against time and right now, it is obvious that we have fallen way behind when we look at what has happened in Dominica and Anguilla just around us in terms of where we need to go,” he added.

According to Dr Pickering, one of the fundamental aspects that emerged from studies conducted years ago was that the BVI needed access to the eastern seaboard of the United States, even if it were only to Miami, Florida.

“[Access to] anywhere in the United States puts you in the game, so to speak, because right now you can’t compete and everybody else is moving ahead of you. It’s like we are still wearing garments from the 70s and people are fashionable in the 2000s.

He added: “We want to be competing, we want to be in the game, but we’re not equipping ourselves to be in the game.”

Just this week, Premier Andrew Fahie announced that he has sent invitations to several major airlines such as jetBlue, American Airlines, and Delta Airlines to operate in the BVI. He said a new airline will begin operating in the territory in another six to seven months.