Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) is an international airport at Seawell, Christ Church, Barbados, serving as the country's only port of entry by air.
The airport is the only designated port of entry for persons arriving and departing by air in Barbados and operates as one of the major gateways to the Eastern Caribbean. It has direct service to destinations in the United States, Canada, Central America and Europe. In 2016, the airport was the eighth-busiest airport in the Caribbean region and the third-busiest airport in the Lesser Antilles after Queen Beatrix International Airport on Aruba and Pointe-à-Pitre International Airport on Guadeloupe. GAIA also remains an important air-link for cruise ship passengers departing and arriving at the Port of Bridgetown, and a base of operations for the Regional Security System (RSS), and the Regional (Caribbean) Police Training Centre.
The airport's former name was Seawell Airport before being dedicated posthumously in honour of the first Premier of Barbados, Sir Grantley Herbert Adams in 1976. The airport is in the Atlantic time zone (UTC−4:00) and is in World Area Code region No. 246 (by the US Department of Transportation). It was a hub for now-defunct Barbadian carriers Caribbean Airways (not to be confused with the currently-as of 2021-operating Caribbean Airlines) and REDjet, the home for the charter carrier West Indies Executive Air, and former home to the flight training school Coconut Airways.
Overview and geography
Grantley Adams International Airport lies from the centre of the capital city Bridgetown, in an area officially known as Seawell. This is contrary to most information services stating the airport as being inside the capital. Grantley Adams Airport is the main air transportation hub for the Eastern Caribbean.
The terrain is relatively flat and quite suburban. The airport lies in the south-eastern portion of parish of Christ Church, close to the southern tip of the island. The airport has easy access to the ABC Highway/highway 7 heading towards the capital and locations to the north and west coast.
The airport has recently undergone a multi-phase US$100 million upgrade and expansion by the government, which added a new arrivals hall adjacent to the prior arrivals/departures terminals. Construction was made slightly more complicated because the airport has to remain open for up to 16 hours per day. Its current infrastructure is supposed to meet the needs of Barbados until at least 2015. The phase III construction project, which is yet to be completed will see changes made to the aeroplane parking configuration.
History
Early years
The first recorded flight in to Barbados was in 1929 at today's Rockley Golf Course. As far as air transportation at the site of present-day facility, then known as Seawell Airport, history goes back as far as September 1938 when a mail plane from KLM Royal Dutch Airlines landed on the site from Trinidad. At the time there was merely a grassy strip as the runway. The strip was paved some time later and in 1949 the first terminal was built on the site, to replace a shed that was being used. This ushered in the facility being formally known as the Seawell Airport due to the plantation.
During the 1960s the eastern flight-range just south-east of the airport became known as Paragon. This area became the initial base of a 'High Altitude Research Project' known as Project HARP. Project HARP was jointly sponsored by McGill University in Canada and the United States military.
In mid-October, 1983, the civilian international airport became the scene of intense military activity. Then Prime Minister Tom Adams, the son of the airport's eponym, offered use of the facility to the U.S. military as a forward staging and support area for the diverse American aircraft which were deployed from the mainland in Operation Urgent Fury. The airport also became a press center for more than 300 international journalist who had been dispatched by their organizations to report on the surprise multi-national intervention into the neighbouring island of Grenada. The younger Adams played a key leadership role in gathering support among English-speaking Caribbean nations for the operation to restore democracy and the rule of law on Grenada after an internal leadership dispute degraded into political assassination and civilian bloodshed.