TCI News
TCI: Airport firefighters draw public support during strike, labelled as ‘one of the finest’ by Provo Air Center
#Providenciales, August 10, 2019 – Turks and Caicos – Memes, social media commentary, voice notes and at least one private sector partner lent support to the disgruntled fire fighters of the Providenciales International Airport, PLS in their stance for better work conditions.
“Thank God, I haven’t had to see the fire fighters in major action yet but I’ve seen them operate and react to a lot of minor incidents. We have one of the finest in the Caribbean. These guys and women are an elite fire fighting force and I think that we need to recognize them and we need to treat them as such. So, I feel for them, I understand what their complaints are and I hope that we are all going to be speaking to our representatives and encouraging the Airports Authority to do their best with them,” said Deborah Aharon, CEO of Provo Air Center during an interview with Magnetic Media on Friday.
Twenty of the 25 fire crew walked off the job on Thursday, citing their frustration at requests for improvements and fairness on the job as reaching a breaking point with the Turks and Caicos Islands Airports Authority, TCIAA.
Aharon, who has been in the airline business for over 20-years explained, “We rely on them, as we learned today, if they’re not working, nobody is moving. To me they are heroes just for showing up every day.”
The fire fighters claimed, “employment abuse” by the TCIAA and their strike left the airport with insufficient fire fighters and crippled operations at the country’s busiest airport. Flights on Friday were delayed and some cancelled as a result of manpower shortage. The incident almost forced cancellations at the Fixed Base Operators, FBOs or private airports.
“In the beginning, it was a little bit scary because everybody had to stop; interCaribbean, United, Delta and I think they had to make special arrangements to get American off on-time today, which was a blessings, they came up with work-arounds and some of the fire fighters started coming in to help. For the FBO, the problem is that most of the one percent visitors are coming in on large private jets, they are coming in on Challengers, Gulf Streams and those are fire-fighting category six. So, for most of the day we were operating at category five, so that meant that some of our customers could not come in today or could not take off. Luckily the Airports Authority worked it out, just before I had to start notifying customers.”
The 23 men and two women which make up the fire crew at their airport told Magnetic Media that they were treated unfairly by the Airports Authority. Overtime pay was unpaid and sometimes their hours were adversely manipulated, the fire station where the crew could spend up to 16-hours on shift, was run down according to the spokesperson for the group.
Speaking to us at her office at Provo Air Center, which is located on Aviation Drive, Aharon said: “I don’t know much about it (the complaints) but I would certainly hope that the Airports Authority is going to put every effort into making sure that they have the comfortable working environment that they need.”
The fire fighters on Friday afternoon managed to secure a meeting with the Premier, the Governor and the Deputy Chairman of the TCIAA board; it led to an amicable end to the stalemate and a return to work with the crew feeling optimistic about concerns finally being addressed.
For Provo Air Center, which handles the lion share of private flights to Providenciales, this was great news.
“I really hesitated to notify customers, because we don’t want this to get out into the world. So, I think we dodged a major bullet today. I hope that they’re going to keep the dialogue going and they’re going to reach a good agreement in order for us not to have to face this again.”
Both Provo Air Center and Blue Heron Aviation share a site with the Providenciales International Airport. The fire fighters stationed at PLS are trained, equipped and mandated by international regulations to be on emergency stand-by in the event planes landing at either of the three facilities, experience trouble.
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Almost two million visitors recorded in 2025
PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS – The Turks and Caicos Islands saw an increase in stayover arrivals in December, seven percent higher than the corresponding period in 2024.
Preliminary data suggests that stay over arrivals by air for the month of December was 66,427 in comparison to 62,610 in December 2024.
From January to December 2025, preliminary visitor arrival numbers totalled 640,754; on par with the number recorded for the same period of 2024.
Stay Over Arrivals YTD December 2024/2025
The first quarter of the calendar year attracted the largest number of arrivals with visitor arrivals three percent higher than the first quarter of 2024. Reduced airlift from the United Kingdom and the United States, most notably the Virgin Atlantic and JetBlue services, was however felt from the second quarter (April to June). As a result, visitor arrivals dropped three percent in the second quarter.
By the third quarter of this year (July to September), geopolitical and economic conditions in the key source markets, namely the United States, led to further contraction of arrivals. In the last quarter of 2025, arrivals were impacted in October due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa but additional airlift from the USA and Canada resulted in an increase in arrivals in November and December.
Mr. Paul Pennicook, Interim CEO Consultant of Experience Turks and Caicos, said December’s increase in stayover arrivals is an encouraging indicator of the sustained interest in the Turks and Caicos Islands as a premier destination.
“While we note and continue to monitor geopolitical shifts that affect us, Experience Turks and Caicos is focused on increasing marketing initiatives in our primary source markets. We have spent the last two years investing in groundwork such as crucial travel advisor training to assist them in selling the destination more effectively. In the next fiscal, we will be building on those initiatives with co-op activities with partners as well as out of home advertising to increase visitation to our destination,” he said.
In Cruise, the preliminary count of passenger arrivals for the month of December 2025 was 129,346, a 22 percent increase over last December. This growth follows the berthing of 11 additional ships in Grand Turk this month.
From January to December, the cruise sector continued to outperform the same period last year, as the 1.3 million total cruise passengers recorded, marks a five percent Year-on-Year increase. 
The cruise sector experienced significant growth in the first quarter of 2025, with passenger arrivals surpassing last quarter by 53 percent. In the second and third quarter however, several cruise lines adjusted their itineraries as vessels were pulled from the fleet or from the Caribbean region, which resulted in fewer passengers.
Arrivals dropped seven percent and 10 percent in the second and third quarters, respectively. Double digit growth was recorded in the last two months of Quarter 4. This growth however, was not sufficient to outweigh the drop in arrivals experienced in October, following the cancellation of cruise calls due to the passage of Hurricane Melissa. Despite the late-quarter rebound, arrivals for the final quarter of 2025 closed six percent below the same period in 2024.
News
The Department of Trade, Industry & Fair Competition to Host Export Readiness Workshop Under the theme “Empowering TCI Businesses for Local Growth and Global Markets.”
Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – Wednesday, 11 February 2026: The Informal Settlements Unit (ISU) coordinated a multi-agency enforcement operation on Thursday, 29 January 2026, led by the Planning Department, with support from the Crown Land
Unit, the Turks and Caicos Islands Border Force, and security provided by the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force. The operation, carried out at three different locations in Providenciales, formed part of ongoing government efforts to address unauthorised development and illegal occupation of land in accordance with governing legislation.
The operation commenced in Blue Hills, where five Section 58 Enforcement Notices were issued on unauthorised structures identified on Block and Parcel 60502/48.
Enforcement activity then moved to a second location off the Leeward Highway near Caicos Lodge, where six Section 58 Enforcement Notices were issued on additional unauthorised structures on Block and Parcel 60802/66.
The final phase of the operation took place in The Bight, where three unauthorised structures were removed, with all debris cleared from the site in keeping with established safety and environmental protocols.
The Informal Settlements Unit remains committed to working alongside its partner agencies to support lawful development, protect public and private land, and ensure that planning regulations are enforced in a coordinated and transparent manner across the Turks and Caicos Islands. Similar joint operations will continue as part of the Government’s wider strategy to address unauthorised development and informal settlement activity.
