Tropic Air started flying in 1979 with one Cessna plane. 29 years later, they have a fleet of 9 aircrafts and they boast of flying the most passengers a day. And on the eve of its 30th year in the sky – the company is undergoing a multi-million dollar makeover. They are investing millions in new airplanes, terminals, and cargo facilities. This morning they broke ground for a new terminal at their hub in San Pedro and Keith Swift has the story.
Keitb Swift Reporting,
This morning Tourism Minister Manuel Heredia Jr. broke ground – and the construction of Tropic Air’s new terminal in San Pedro started almost immediately. This is what it will look like – 7,000 square feet - ten times the size of the present one.
John Greif, Tropic Air President
“It will be state of the art. For instance there will be as the customer walks in, there will be a huge 6 foot diameter, 8 foot tall aquarium with local marine life. It will be all wireless of course, we will have televised displays for flight information, both for our flights and the international flights. There will be a baggage check in and claim on the inside so it will be, we hope, spectacular.”
Keith Swift,
What will be the cost?
John Greif,
“About $3 million.”
And along with the new terminal, Tropic Air will soon have a new fleet. I am sitting in the first of the airline’s 11 next generation grand Cessna caravans.
Mike Kuhn, Chief Pilot
“This is the first of the new generations Cessna caravans. Actually this is the first one that came out the production line for commercial use and
it is the first one out there in world actually with the new generation instruments and different features. It is much more user friendly, it has a flight directory system on it, and it relieves the work load of the pilot for the number of flights we do during the day.”
Keith Swift,
Is there any benefit for passengers?
Mike Kuhn,
“Sure, it is enhanced safety.”
And Tropic Air’s President John Greif says safety is at a premium - as even he concedes that the airline has had safety issues.
John Greif,
“Tropic like all other aviation enterprises, government and domestic, are forced to analyze when we have problems and we’ve analyzed the problems that we have and these aircrafts in our opinion will solve all of them, certainly 99% of them.”
Keith Swift,
And those problems would have been?
John Greif,
“Pilot error having to do with identifying weather, staying away from the weather, everything being working 100% all the time, and these new aircrafts will solve that problem.”
Construction of the terminal should be completed within a year. The remaining ten Cessna grand caravans will arrive over the coming years. Also in the pipeline are a new cargo terminal building at Municipal Air Strip and an extension of their hangar space at the airport.
