The "Landing Back In Time" Story

 It was an ordinary day.  Looking out the oval window and watching the arid landscape fly by.  Actually, the landscape was not flying by, the plane that I was riding on was landing on the Providenciales International Airport runway.  Now, I use those words, international airport, very cautiously, since it looks like anything but an international airport.  The airport airstrip was first built in 1966 when the island was beginning to experience development and they needed a place for planes to land.   Two years later the airport, with the just finished airstrip, opened for small aircraft to land.  It wasn't until 1970 that a terminal was started.  Then in 1983 Club Med, a French vacation resort found in many parts of the world, began construction of a huge resort on Grace Bay in Provo.  In order to help fill the resort, Club Med helped subsidize the construction of a longer runway to accommodate larger planes.  In 1984 Club Med opened it's doors to business and the new airport runway began to land planes.  The runway was as long as the runway at JFK.  Well, as we landed today, I looked out my window and saw what has to be one of the smallest airport terminals in the Caribbean that accepts international travelers.  A very well-kept terminal building, but no passenger loading ramps that have access to the terminal.  We exited the plane by way of portable stairs and walked to the terminal.  For me, I enjoy stepping out of the plane and feeling that warm, actually hot and humid, air strike me in the face.  Hey I'm on vacation in the Caribbean, but on a rainy day, having to exit onto the tarmac can be a problem for many.  Currently there are approximately 12,000 commercial aircraft landing in Provo yearly.  As I read more about the airport I found that a new terminal that will be twice the size of the current one and lengthening of the runway is to begin soon.  The new work will be completed by 2014 and will ensure that the Provo airport will meet the needs of travelers well into the future.  Guess I'll have to make plans for a return visit to see their new airport terminal.  And while I'm there I might as well sit on their beaches for a week of two.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.  

The terminal as it appears today

Runway leading into Provo International Airport

Proposed new Provo terminal