Stephon Nicholas

To­ba­go Cor­re­spon­dent

Pas­sen­gers trav­el­ling through the new east ter­mi­nal at ANR Robin­son In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port say the fa­cil­i­ty has left them on cloud nine.

The maid­en flight, BW 1500, touched down in To­ba­go at 6.30 am yes­ter­day. Wa­ter can­nons sprayed the air­craft to mark the his­toric oc­ca­sion. Min­is­ter of Trans­port Eli Za­k­our ar­rived from Trinidad on board and wel­comed pas­sen­gers along­side Chief Sec­re­tary Far­ley Au­gus­tine. Cul­tur­al dancers added to the cel­e­bra­tions, and pas­sen­gers re­ceived gift bags.

Pas­sen­gers de­part­ing To­ba­go on BW 1501 were al­so cel­e­brat­ed.

Tra­di­tion­al ven­dors sell­ing To­ba­go treats were ready for busi­ness, along­side Rit­u­als, To­ba­go Tuh Go sou­venir and gift shop, and 1ndi­vid­ual Aes­thet­ic ap­par­el store.

Pas­sen­ger Na­tal­ie Har­ford said she was shocked by the fa­cil­i­ties’ mag­nif­i­cence and the mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to the ter­mi­nal. The es­ca­la­tors use sen­sors and ac­ti­vate on­ly when ap­proached, sav­ing elec­tric­i­ty when they are not in use.

“I was shocked to see how big it is. It takes the coun­try to an ad­di­tion­al lev­el—an in­ter­na­tion­al lev­el. It re­al­ly shows where our mon­ey was spent,” she said.

Amer­i­can tourist Ju­lianne Hen­ry al­so gave the ter­mi­nal a glow­ing en­dorse­ment as she pre­pared to leave the is­land.

“This in­ter­na­tion­al air­port is very beau­ti­ful. The decor, the am­bi­ence, the hos­pi­tal­i­ty—every­thing here is very pro­fes­sion­al right now, and I hope it con­tin­ues that way. It’s very spa­cious and more com­fort­able.”

Hen­ry de­scribed the fa­cil­i­ty as an up­grade to the pre­vi­ous ter­mi­nal, but said food out­lets were the on­ly thing miss­ing. She not­ed that on­ly Rit­u­als was open at the time, while a ban­ner ad­ver­tised Roy­al Cas­tle’s im­pend­ing ar­rival.

Nonethe­less, she said the ter­mi­nal was an as­set to To­ba­go’s tourism in­dus­try.

Buc­coo stu­dent J’Dyn James, 10, was ex­cit­ed as he passed through the air­port with his moth­er. He said the artistry and colours re­mind­ed him of Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port.

Mean­while, Kee­gan Si­mon, pro­pri­etor of 1ndi­vid­ual Aes­thet­ic ap­par­el store, told Guardian Me­dia he was proud to have his busi­ness at the air­port. Af­ter show­cas­ing his mer­chan­dise at pop-up shops and on­line for sev­er­al years, he jumped at the op­por­tu­ni­ty to open his first store-front.

“You don’t get these types of op­por­tu­ni­ties reg­u­lar­ly, so when you have even a sniff of it, seize the op­por­tu­ni­ty. This is a bil­lion-dol­lar en­ti­ty; just to get a part of it is a great chance,” he said.

Si­mon said the To­ba­go air­port was the per­fect space for his busi­ness to flour­ish.

“Hav­ing the first flight come in this morn­ing, it on­ly goes up from here.”

Speak­ing about his mer­chan­dise, which fea­tures pa­tri­ot­ic mes­sages and unique Trinidad and To­ba­go phras­es, he said: “I love Trinidad and To­ba­go, and I want T&T to be seen how it de­serves to be seen.”

An­tho­ny Williams, own­er of Ne­ka’s Sweets, which sells fudge, sug­ar cake and oth­er de­lights, said he was hap­py to move from the old air­port to the new fa­cil­i­ty.

“It is a great feel­ing for each and every ven­dor here to­day,” he said.