VC Bird Intl Airport’s Runway damaged by departed flight, netizens share mixed reactions

Antigua and Barbuda: The portion of the runway of the VC Bird International Airport was displaced by the exhaust from a departed flight on Sunday morning. Right after the damage, the authorities closed the airport for emergency repairs which has now returned to normal operations.

The authorities announced that the flight operations at the airport have fully returned to normal on Monday as the emergency repairs are completed. The necessary repairs were done and the runway could operate the flights properly.

The authorities added that the speedy and professional action of a joint response team had repaired the runway and the Ministry of Works ensured that disruption to regular traffic was kept at an absolute minimum.

In response, the airport management team deployed several emergency and maintenance vehicles such as heavy-duty equipment which assessed the damage and carried out the necessary repairs. They also inspected the runway on Sunday to analyze the damage caused by the aircraft.

The damaged portion of the runway is used for taxing and taking off the flights. The landing of the flights does not occur at this portion, assisting the arrival flight to land at the VC Bird International Airport.

However, the flights that reached the airport on Sunday departed Antigua and Barbuda on Monday after the restoration process was completed. The airport operations were not unduly affected by the disruption, and the authorities also promised to provide the effective service which was cancelled earlier due to the incident.

The VC Bird International Airport extended gratitude to the passengers for their patience and apologized for the inconvenience caused by the damage. They added that the repair work has been done and now the operations of the flights have returned to the smooth service.

However, the incident sparked debate among netizens who condemned the infrastructure quality of the airport. One added,” The infrastructure built poorly so what do they expect . cheap labor because anything in Antigua goes .. that’s a fact nothing built the correct way . So it’s nothing to be surprised about if the runway gets damaged because it’s short cut cheap labor..”

In contrast, some netizens also lauded the immediate response of the team and said that their effective repair has started the operations of the flights in such a short span of time. This is quite effective and impressive as a team is ready to manage such situations.

One commented,” I don’t know when it happened but on Saturday I saw the immediate attention given to the area late Saturday afternoon. Continue to do your thing and fly safe.”