St. George’s, Bermuda, November 10, 2021 – The Bermuda Airport Redevelopment project has been awarded for innovation and excellence in Canada.
The Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships announced the 2021 winners of national awards for innovation and excellence with Aecon Concessions named as one of five winners for the Airport Redevelopment Project. The LF Wade International Airport marks the second time the prestigious awards have recognized an international project.
The announcement said: “By using innovative thinking and Canadian P3 expertise, Bermuda was able to achieve what many small airports in the world have struggled to do — attract private sector investment to finance a major capital redevelopment. The US $300-million project is the largest P3 infrastructure deal in Bermuda’s history.
“The bespoke government-to-government contract and guarantee mechanism, supported by an underlying P3 commercial and financing structure, enabled the new 288,000 square foot facility to meet the latest international standards while still dramatically lowering the project’s initial capital budget.”
Steve Nackan, President, Aecon Concessions, says: “I’d like to thank and congratulate the entire Aecon project team, Bermuda Skyport, the Canadian Commercial Corporation, the Government of Bermuda, Bermuda Airport Authority and all of our business partners that steered this project’s success. Built upon extraordinary local and international collaboration, the CCC and the Government of Bermuda successfully partnered with Aecon to develop this dynamic new, modern, state-of-the-art landmark showcasing the best of Bermuda to the world.
Aaron Adderley, President, Bermuda Skyport, says: “We are excited once again, to have the LF Wade International Airport Redevelopment recognized by those within the industry with expertise and knowledge to appreciate the challenges this P3 project successfully overcame. Small airports like ours are not often attractive options for private sector investors and our passenger traffic, which is the cornerstone for success of any large airport redevelopment project, has not always been robust.
“Faced with these realities, the ability to construct a successful P3 business model to develop a new passenger terminal for Bermuda was always going to be difficult. To have done that successfully is an accomplishment. The Bermuda model is an example that other airports, especially the smaller ones, are looking to follow and it is fantastic that it has been recognized with this industry gold award.”
The partners for the Airport Redevelopment Project were the Government of Bermuda, the Canadian Commercial Corporation and Aecon Concessions.
There were 885 Bermudians who worked on the site over the course of the airport redevelopment project, which began in March 2017 and a total of 1.6 million construction manhours. Additionally, the project engaged almost 400 Bermudian companies, vendors and suppliers in what became an extraordinary collaboration of local and international efforts.