Nevis Is Betting on a Longer Runway for Its Future

A US$25 million private investment, a Taiwanese concessional loan and a local bank loan are carrying Vance W. Amory International Airport toward a 6,000-foot runway, a project the Nevis Island Administration calls an investment in the island's future.

Nevis is betting on its future, and the first visible sign of that bet is a longer runway. The Nevis Island Administration is now in the middle of a plan to expand Vance W. Amory International Airport in Newcastle, St. James, a project that officials say will open the island to more visitors, more business and more of the world. Work began after a groundbreaking on July 1, 2026, and the island is now looking ahead to what the airport will mean for the decade to come.

What is being built

The scope is ambitious. The runway, now about 2,000 feet long, is to be extended to 6,000 feet. The plan also includes an apron able to hold up to 50 executive jets, a fuel farm, a fire hall, an expanded terminal and a new Customs Hall, according to reporting by the St. Kitts Nevis Observer and Nevis Pages.

Runway length is the heart of the outlook. It determines which aircraft can land at Nevis and how far they can fly to reach the island, and the hotel sector has said limited airlift has held back growth for years.

A premier who is blunt about the old airport

Premier Mark Brantley has been the project's most visible champion. He serves as Premier and Minister of Tourism, Finance and Economic Planning, and he has been direct about the limits of the current facility. In January 2023 he said the airport "has outlived its usefulness in its current form." He pointed to a hotel sector that has complained limited airlift holds back growth, and he noted that the airport's last major investment came more than 20 years ago. Brantley has framed the project around the next generation. "We are doing what we are doing for those who are coming; the next generation," he has said. He has also described the advanced airport as "good for Nevis and good for the Federation."

The name on the terminal

The airport carries the name of Vance W. Amory, the late former Premier who served two terms, from 1992 to 2006 and from 2013 to 2017. Amory died on April 2, 2022, at age 72. The expansion is the next chapter for a facility that has long been identified with his leadership.

Who is behind it

The work sits inside the Nevis Island Administration. Alexis Jeffers, Project Coordinator and Advisor to the Premier on Investments, leads much of the day-to-day coordination. Michael Perkins serves as project manager. Oral Brandy, general manager of the Nevis Air and Sea Ports Authority, represents the agency that oversees the airport. On the construction side, Kelly Construction, led by Seamus Kelly, holds the building contract and expects to finish within 18 months of the groundbreaking. Perez Engineering Construction and Consulting Services Ltd., headed by Leonardo Perez, has been engaged on the engineering work.

The money

The financing is where the outlook gets most interesting. Patrick Drahi, the French telecommunications billionaire who lives on Nevis, is contributing US$25 million. The Republic of China (Taiwan) has provided a US$20 million concessional loan, and Ambassador Edward Ling-Wen Tao has said he hopes the project will "proceed smoothly, reach a successful completion." The St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla National Bank has committed a loan of EC$20 million, about US$7.4 million, guaranteed by the Federal Government. WINN FM reported in January 2023, and billionaires.africa reported in October 2026, that Drahi would be repaid from airport revenue at a nominal interest rate of 2 percent. The final terms of his US$25 million have not been published, and the public deserves to see them in full. WINN FM has also reported that an earlier funding arrangement was not yet a binding agreement, so the signed documents will matter.

Cost estimates vary as well, and a single reconciled budget would help. Jeffers told WINN FM in March 2024 that the cost would be "somewhere between 25 and 30 million US dollars." A consultant's estimate from November 2024, reported by billionaires.africa, put the total above US$47 million, including about US$11 million for land. A full project budget should settle that gap clearly and early.

What it could mean for Nevis

Officials point to more air traffic and tourism, construction jobs during the build, and permanent airport jobs in operations, security, customs and immigration, ground handling and maintenance. For a hotel sector that has waited years for better airlift, and for Nevisians who now connect through other islands to reach home, those benefits are concrete.

Not everyone is persuaded. The Nevis Reformation Party has criticized the airport's operations and the lack of direct flights. An editorial in the St. Kitts Nevis Observer on October 12, 2026 questioned Drahi's motives, yet it still called the redevelopment a win for Nevis. That balance fits the moment: a project with real promise that the public has every right to see documented.

Nevis has waited a long time for an airport that matches its ambitions. If the 18-month timeline holds, the new runway would be ready around early 2028. That date will show whether the promises made at the start of the work were kept, and it gives Nevis a clear test of what this generation can build for the next.