No major damage at Grantley Adams International Airport

This island’s lone airport appears to have remained relatively unscathed during the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

While teams at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) were assessing damages to the facility in the wake of Hurricane Beryl immediately following the all-clear given by Minister of Home Affairs Wilfred Abrahams on Monday afternoon, the initial report is that damages were at a minimum.

GAIA’s Communications Specialist Sharleen Browne told Barbados TODAY that there was “really nothing significant that will limit our reopening”.

“We just need to make sure that when we do our assessment, everything is clean and safe so that we can welcome our passengers because, as you can appreciate, after the all-clear is given by the officials, which it has, then our team needs to come in and do their assessment so that everyone else can have their operations run as smoothly as possible,” she said.

Acknowledging that some videos and photos of damages at the Arrivals Hall were being circulated, Browne said it was nothing significant.

“I want to say that they look entirely worse than they really are. It is a partition that came down in the arrivals courtyard which is used as guidance for passengers when they come in to queue in the arrivals space so they can go onto the immigration process seamlessly. It really is not a major deal and can be fixed very easily. Our teams are in there right now making their assessment and doing any minor fixes that need to be done,” she explained.

Browne pointed out that as soon as the team’s assessments have been completed, there will be an announcement about exactly when the airport will be reopened to the public.

GAIA was closed on Sunday night ahead of the arrival of a then rapidly moving Category Four Hurricane Beryl, resulting in several regional and international flight cancellations.