Owen Roberts International

A Legacy of Private Aviation

GCM originated in the early 1950s through the efforts of Wing Commander Owen Roberts of the British RAF. After WWII, Roberts founded Caribbean International Airways, with regular seaplane flights between Grand Cayman and Tampa, Florida, Kingston, Jamaica, and British Honduras (as the airstrip on Grand Cayman still needed to be completed). Whereas Roberts had lobbied Cayman Island Commissioners for airports to be built on all three Cayman Islands, construction began on a 5000-foot runway and a terminal on Grand Cayman in 1952. As such, Roberts acquired two Lockheed Lodestar twin-prop airliners that would serve the new airport. The inaugural flight of Caribbean International Airways from Kingston, Jamaica, to Grand Cayman was set to take place on April 10th, 1953, with Roberts piloting. Tragically, the plane crashed, with Roberts and 13 others killed (with only one survivor, Roberts' brother-in-law). To honor Roberts, the Grand Cayman Island Airport was named after him. Initial service at GCM was by British West Indian Airways (now Caribbean Airlines) in association with British Overseas Airways Corporation (now British Airways). Within a few years, they were joined by LACS a (now Avianca Costa Rica), and these three airlines continued to be the foremost service providers at GCM into the 1960s. Jets arrived in the late 1960s through British West Indian Boeing 727-100s, with more to come via LACSA in the 1970s and Air Jamaica in 1980. The first US-based carrier to service GCM was Southern Airways (later Republic Airlines and then Northwest) in the mid-1970s. By the late 1980s, GCM was serviced by US-based Northwest, American Airlines, Eastern Air Lines, and Pan AM. Direct service to the UK was added by British Airways in the mid-1990s, with service to London Gatwick via Douglas DC-10-30 wide-body jetliners (service continues today to London Heathrow via Boeing 777-200 wide-body aircraft, with a stop in Nassau, the Bahamas). In 2007, plans were announced to expand and upgrade the airport. The renovations were completed by 2012, and they included the expansion of the airport's car parks and pick-up and drop-off locations, as well as the refurbishing of the departure hall interior and the livening up of the passport control and customs area. Furthermore, a new x-ray machine and baggage screening machine were purchased. A second plan was unveiled in 2014, which would expand the terminal building, parking options, aprons, taxi area, and runway extension. Moreover, a second terminal building, called the Greenspace Terminal, would be built in addition to a parallel taxiway. These expansions would allow for newer and larger jet aircraft (such as the Airbus A330 and the Boeing 747-400) to service GCM. Work on the old terminal building was completed in February 2019; the expansion of the apron area and lengthening of the runway was completed in November 2020 (and its completion led to the evolution of service to GCM by various airlines, including Delta, United, American, JetBlue, Southwest, and more).