| Gleaming private Executive Jets whizzed in and out of Anguilla at the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport, with a considerable degree of frequency over the holiday season, bringing in a number of high-profile visitors to the island. |
 The jet flights, which showed a sizeable increase from the middle of December, brought a lot of activity, over the Christmas holidays, to the airport where traffic during the past months had been relatively low. It was reported that on Boxing Day alone there were up to 41 flights and that the figure could be substantially higher for the New Year’s Day holiday. The eastern and middle portions of the airport are occupied by a number of jet aircraft in tightly-parked formations waiting to fly out their passengers holidaying on the island. So far, there have been direct flights by some of the bigger jets from London, Spain and the Azores which are said to have taken over six hours to arrive in Anguilla. These private jets included Global Express, Falcon 7X and Gulf Stream 550. Depending on their configuration, these larger aircraft can reportedly carry up to sixteen passengers. The majority of the flights by some of the above jets, as well as the Gulf Stream 4 and other medium sized aircraft, came in from various parts of the United States and also from Brazil in South America. The Anguillian met on Christmas Day with Captain Mike Funiciello who, along with his crew, flew a number of visitors to the island on his Gulf Stream 4 direct from New York, a journey of about three and a half hours. “I have been coming to Anguilla every year,” he told the newspaper. “I can’t think of a nicer place to spend the week.”  He went on: “We like the runway. We started coming here as soon as the runway was made longer. It is nice. The guys at Lloyd’s Aviation Services [providing the ground-handling operations] are the best.” Taxi-drivers and other observers at the airport expressed delight in seeing the jets roaring in and out of the island. Their comments pointed to the fact that Anguilla’s Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport hadmuch potential for jet travel to the island. “See here, we are doing nothing absolutely to have the jets coming here,” one thoughtful person remarked. “They are flying in on their own and the parking space can’t hold them. We need to expand the runway by about 700 feet. Two thousand feet more would attract larger passenger jets with many more tourists. Tell the Government to work on lengthening the runway.” Wallblake Airport, as it was originally known, was expanded by 550 feet, leading to the displacement and relocation of a number of residents in close proximity at both ends.The new runway, with other improved facilities, came into operation on January 28, 2005, having been declared open by Mr. Eric Reid, then Minister of Social Development. It was renamed the Clayton J. Lloyd International Airport by the AUM Government which came into office in February 2010. The renaming ceremony was presided over by Minister of Infrastructure, the Hon. Evan Gumbs. |
