Owen Roberts International Airport

Owen Roberts International Airport is an airport serving Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands. It is the main international airport for the Cayman Islands as well as the main base for Cayman Airways. The airport is named after British Royal Air Force (RAF) Wing Commander Owen Roberts, a pioneer of commercial aviation in the country, and is one of the two entrance ports to the Cayman Islands.

Owen Roberts International Airport was the only international airport remaining in the Caribbean to have an open-air observation "waving gallery" until January 2017 when it was closed due to reconstruction. The upgraded Owen Roberts International Airport passenger terminal no longer has an outdoor observation "waving gallery".

The runway length includes a displaced threshold on Runway 26. The Grand Cayman non-directional beacon (Ident: ZIY) is located short of the approach threshold of Runway 08. The Grand Cayman VOR/DME (Ident: GCM) is located short of Runway 08.

History

Wg Cdr. Owen Roberts was a Wing Commander in the Royal Air Force, during World War II. Following the war, Roberts retired and later founded Caribbean International Airways (CIA). By 1950, Roberts had established regular service between Grand Cayman and Tampa, Florida; Kingston, Jamaica; and British Honduras (now Belize). During the early 1950s, Caribbean International Airlines was operating weekly seaplane service between Grand Cayman and both Tampa and Kingston with Consolidated PBY Catalina amphibian aircraft as the airstrip on Grand Cayman had yet to be completed. Roberts worked to lobby Cayman Islands Commissioners Ivor Smith and Andrew Gerrard to build airfields on all three of the Cayman Islands. In 1952, construction started on an official airstrip at an estimated cost of £93,000 to construct airports on all three Cayman Islands, a runway, along with a terminal was constructed on Grand Cayman at the cost of £100,000. Owen Roberts had acquired two used Lockheed Lodestar twin-prop airliners purchased to keep up with the competition whose interest was now piqued by the soon-to-be completed airfield at George Town.

The inaugural flight of CIA, Ltd. from Kingston, Jamaica to Grand Cayman was set for 10 April 1953. Tragically, however, the Lodestar piloted by Roberts crashed on takeoff from Palisadoes Airport. 13 people, including the 40-year-old Roberts, were killed. The only survivor of the crash was Roberts' brother-in-law, Lt. Col. Edward Remington-Hobbs. Roberts was survived by a wife, Patricia, and their two daughters, in London. His grandson unfortunately passed before him, his name was Will Roberts. He died in a car crash in East End with his best friend Spencer Grainger. The Grand Cayman Island Airport was later named after the late Wg Cdr. Roberts in his honour.

On 21 August 2016, the weather station at the airport recorded a temperature of , which is the highest temperature to have ever been recorded in the Cayman Islands.

Previous expansion projects

In 2007, the Cayman Islands Government announced plans to expand and upgrade the existing airport. Plans include the expansion of the check-in area, the purchase of a new X-ray machine and baggage screening machine as well as the employment of additional passenger screening staff. Phase 1 of the project, the expansion of the airport's car parks and the airport's pick-up and drop-off locations have already been completed. Additional renovations completed in 2012 include refurbishing the departure hall interior and livening up the passport control and customs hall with aquatic paintings and use of an aggressive digital advertising campaign in the baggage claim area.

Current expansion projects

In 2014, Airport Authority unveiled a new plan to perform major renovations at Owen Roberts International Airport as part of a master plan to renovate and redevelop all three Cayman Islands airports. The new plan would expand the current terminal building, passenger parking, public parking, staff parking, aprons, Taxi area, extend the current runway and in the middle to long term build a second terminal building called the Greenspace Terminal and a parallel taxiway. This new expansion will allow passenger airlines to fly their newer and larger aircraft to Owen Roberts International. British Airways currently serves the airport with Boeing 777-200 wide-body aircraft. The BA operated 777 is the largest aircraft operating scheduled passenger service from Owen Roberts at the present time with flights to and from London Heathrow Airport (LHR) via an intermediate stop in Nassau, Bahamas in both directions. The expansion will also allow other airlines with wide-body, long haul aircraft, such as the Airbus A330, Airbus A340, Boeing 747-400 and the Boeing 787-9, the opportunity to fly to Grand Cayman.

The expansion work began in 2015 with a temporarily extended departure hall being added to accommodate passenger traffic while the tendering process is completed and construction commenced. On 9 March 2015, the Florida-based company RS&H, which is partnered with the Cayman Island Airport Authority, unveiled a new design for Owen Roberts International. This new design is based mostly on the design criteria created by Canadian firm WS&P in 2014. Work on Owen Roberts estimated to cost around some $55 Million KYD. On 23 June 2015, it was confirmed by CIAA CEO Albert Anderson that construction work would start in early August 2015 and is estimated to be finished in generally 2 years. Late in August 2015, it was determined that work would have to be delayed to early September. A groundbreaking ceremony took place on 10 September 2015. In late October 2015, it was announced that phase 2 of the expansion would start in the early part of 2016.

Phase 1 of the expansion was completed on time and on budget by June 2016. Phase 2 began in July 2016. Part of the phase 2 reconstruction was the removal of the famous and only A-frame open-air observation "waving gallery" in the region as it was closed to the public in January 2017. The expansion of the Terminal Building was completed in late February 2019 and grand reopening was on 27 March by Prince Charles on his royal visit to Grand Cayman and Cayman Brac on 27 & 28 March 2019. The expansion of the Apron area and strengthening and lengthening of the runway and taxiways project began in Summer 2019. A bid for contractors for the Runway lengthening project commenced and companies had been chosen. In late 2019 into early 2020 movement of wildlife, clearing of area and filling of the ponds west of the Runway, West of threshold 08 had commenced, and construction of runway lengthening and Apron expansion has begun. This phase expected was completed by June 2020. Due to faster than expected passenger capacity of the newly redeveloped terminal building. Minister of Tourism announced that the phase of the Airport Master Plan that would see to the development of the second Terminal building, also known as the Greenspace Terminal Building has been pushed forwards, to after the runway and apron lengthening and expansion phase. The Greenspace Terminal Building development will also include new Apron development, new Runway extension considerations, and Jet Bridges. In addition to the Greenspace Terminal Building development, additional expansion to seating on the Second Floor of the redeveloped Terminal will be done in the short term.

As a result of the extension of the Grand Cayman Airport, airlines have extended their flight schedules. Recently, American Airlines has added a new nonstop service to Boston, Chicago, and New York-JFK. Delta Air Lines has also expanded its schedules adding new flights to Grand Cayman from New York-JFK and adding additional frequencies from other hubs. Southwest has added Service to Baltimore, Fort Lauderdale, and Houston Hobby airport. In addition, United Airlines has drastically expanded its schedules in recent months. This includes new daily nonstop flights from Newark, New Jersey to Grand Cayman through June and twice Daily service from Newark in the high season of April. American Airlines flies a mix of Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 Family aircraft to the island, Delta Airlines flies Boeing 757-200 aircraft, Boeing 737-800/900ER aircraft, and Airbus A320 Family aircraft, JetBlue flies Airbus A320 Family aircraft, Southwest flies a mix of Boeing 737 aircraft and United Airlines flies a mixture of Boeing 737-700/800/900ER aircraft. Cayman Airways, as a result of airport expansion, is planning new routes from the Cayman Islands and is exploring destinations in Canada and Los Angeles, California. The airport expansion brings the gate total to nine gates. Cayman Airways usually uses gates 1–3, American Airlines usually uses Gates 6–9, Jetblue usually uses gate 4 or 5, United Uses Gates 1–4, Delta uses gates 1–5, and Southwest uses Gate 6. All gates deplane via airstairs or ramps and gate assignments do change on occasion. British Airways' Twice weekly service on the Boeing 777 uses a specially configured Gate 1.

As of 30 November 2020, Owen Roberts International Airport new development project has seen the completion of the 797 ft Runway extension from 08 to near Crewe Road, taking the 7,070 ft runway to the full runway length now 7,867 ft, and the fully paved strip now 8261 ft. Also a new Taxiway loop at the end of the runway extension near 08 that saw the movement of Taxiways Alpha and Bravo moved to the loop, Charlie and Delta Taxiways moved to where the former Alpha and Bravo taxiways were located leading to the General Aviation Terminal, and Echo and Foxtrot added to where the former Charlie and Delta were leading to the Commercial terminal. Due to the build of the runway extension and taxiway loop closer to Crewe Road. A jet blast deflector was erected around the taxiway loop and at the end of the new runway extension dividing the runway from the road. Along with the new taxiway loop and shift in taxiway locations a new Parallel taxiway was built and completed c…