St.Barths does just fine with a tiny airport and runway, about the same as Anguilla’s airport and runway. We all agree that airline connections to Anguilla need to be improved. When we began visiting the island in 1992 we came through St. Maarten. Then American Eagle began service twice a day through San Juan. The government lengthened the runway at the behest of American Eagle, which a couple of years later abandoned service to Anguilla and several other islands as well.

St. Barths’ runway and airport facility are on a par with Anguilla’s. St. Barths is not talking about building a longer runway to encourage large commercial flights for many reasons. First, it would lose its “exclusivity,” second, they lack the infrastructure and hotels to support such a tourist industry. Anguilla is in a similar position. The aquifer in Anguilla will not last forever and in summer 2015 with the island and the Caribbean in the midst of a drought and insufficient potable water supplies we are fortunate there are fewer thirst mouths to supply. More resorts will not solve Anguilla’s economic problems. As Ronald Webster, father of the nation, said, if the island ended up having too many bell hops and other hotel service industry workers, the revolution would have been a failure. Nearly 50 years after the revolution unemployment remains a problem, but increased tourism won’t solve it.

If the answer to that question was simple and easy, it would have been solved and ceased to be a problem decades ago. Alas, there are no “easy answers,” but a longer runway is not an answer at all.

Meanwhile, a parade of well paid consultants will come through, earn their money by writing reports that are meaningless. So it has been for decades past and for decades yet to come. Some things never change.