When I first arrived in the Cayman Islands almost 35 years ago there were plans to extend the runway at Owen Roberts International Airport on Grand Cayman.

35 years later and nothing has changed.

However, there is a General Election coming, and there is a need as part of a good publicity campaign to show how the Cayman Islands has progressed under the Progressives leadership and their plans for the future. And why not?

The latest government futuristic plans that the Deputy Premier and Tourism Minister, Moses Kirkconnell, announced last week included extending that runway.

He said ministry officials were putting together a request for proposals for an engineering study on the costs and challenges presented by extending the runway at Owen Roberts Airport.

The work would be done in stages with the first stage extending the runway by only 900 feet right up to the perimeter fence against Crewe Road.

The Tourism Minister explained that it would cause minimum disruption to the George Town traffic but there was an unknown factor that could have serious consequences to the cost.

The runway crosses a pond and marsh area. How deep is the pond? Surprisingly the minister did not know and neither did Stran Bodden, the ministry’s chief officer. He also wondered where the water would go after the tarmac was placed.

That is if you can place tarmac over water? But Jesus walked on water so we cannot exclude it.

I expect he was saying after they have drained the pond and filled it in. Drainage is one area where the Cayman Islands really falls down and living here in Newlands I can vouch for that. We even have drains here placed at the top of the terrain such was the thought that went into place when the infrastructure was constructed.

Adding just 900 feet would facilitate the new British Airways 777 planes as well as a number of other types of aircraft and different payloads, the Minister said.

The list of gateways could grow considerably, as modern planes are increasingly more able to land on shorter runways, he added.

He also took time to show why the extension was needed when he outlined all the projects in the works under the Progressives, Dart’s Kimpton hotel and with that branding the connections to the American West Coast market, a second Dart hotel, the renovation of Treasure Island under the Margaritaville brand, Beach Bay, Ironwood resorts and a host of other projects.

Most, however, haven’t started yet.

But soon come.

The runway extension does seem a good idea.

It also did 35 years ago.