A plan to replace the Ambergris Caye airport in the center of San Pedro with a new one near Secret Beach has caught residents by surprise. Here’s what’s planned, who’s paying, and what islanders are saying.
Ambergris Caye is Belize’s largest island and its most popular destination, drawing nearly 28% of the country’s overnight visitors, who numbered just over 550,000 in 2025. Visitors reach it from the international airport in Belize City, either on a 15-minute flight to the airstrip in downtown San Pedro, the island’s only town, or on a ferry that takes about an hour and a half.
That flight could soon land somewhere else on the island and it’s causing some controversy among residents. A 2025 Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) document, reported by the San Pedro Sun this week, lays out a plan to replace the town airstrip, John Greif II Airport, with a new airport near Secret Beach, on the west side of the island north of town. Construction would start in 2027 and finish in 2029, and the land under the current airstrip could then be sold or developed to help pay for it.
The idea that the town airstrip would close was news to most people on the island, and the reaction on local Facebook pages was quick and almost entirely negative. Below, we outline the overall plan and what people on Ambergris Caye think of it.
What’s Actually Planned
The IDB document is a request for “expressions of interest” from consulting firms, posted in June 2025. It says the current airport has no room to expand for larger aircraft and names Secret Beach as the preferred site. It doesn’t confirm the airport will be built. The IDB found it would cost more than it would earn, leaving a gap for the Government of Belize to cover, and the consultants were being hired to find out whether private companies would build and finance it. The only money attached is a $362,610 IDB grant for studies, and there’s no public record of what those studies found.
The government sounds much more certain. Andre Perez, the area representative for Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker, said in February that the airport “is going to happen, that’s for sure,” and in June that “funding is there already.” A previous government said much the same in 2015, when then Prime Minister Dean Barrow announced an international airport at the north end of the island. It was never built.
Perez has described the new airport as a place for private jets, charters, and regional flights. He has never mentioned closing the one in town, which the government had just spent BZ$5 million upgrading, with a resurfaced runway and a new taxiway opened in February 2025. Until this week, people on the island had been hearing about an extra airport for private jets. Now they’re hearing they could lose the one in town, so it’s no surprise the reaction is angrier.
The Old Airstrip and the Congestion Problem
Most of the anger on Facebook is about the land under the current airstrip. Residents want a park, public parking, or a transport hub instead of new development, and several point out that the island has no proper park. One person put it simply: if the point is to get traffic out of town, building on the old airstrip just puts it back.
Few people defend the current setup, which is crowded in high season with little parking. But commenters suggest smaller fixes, such as buying nearby buildings for parking or moving the Catholic primary school in town, which some say causes more traffic than the airport. Many want to keep both: a small airport in the north for private and international flights, and the town airstrip as it is.
Getting On and Off the Island
Secret Beach is a 30 to 45 minute golf cart ride from town on a road that’s only partly paved, and people who live south of San Pedro would be heading north to catch a flight back south. Residents expect taxi fares of $40 to $60 each way, and several say they’d take the water taxi to Belize City instead. Others point out that the new hospital is being built south of town, away from the proposed site.
Downtown business owners are worried about losing the passengers who now land a short walk from shops, restaurants, and hotels, and some say business is already slow. Regular visitors say much the same, with one noting that getting to a northern airport and flying would take longer than the boat.
Who’s Paying, and Who Decides
The questions nobody has answered are the obvious ones: who is paying, who owns the land around the new site, who gets the old one, and why there was no public consultation. Some want a referendum. Others ask how an island with regular power and water cuts can take on an airport in an area the tourism minister said last year still lacks proper electricity, running water, and drainage, and what filling the wetlands at the site would do.
Much of the anger the mayor and town council, even though this is a central government and IDB project, and some commenters are already calling for the council to be voted out in the 2027 municipal elections. The few supporters agree the airport needs to move out of town, then ask the same questions as everyone else.
What Happens Next
For anyone visiting Ambergris Caye, nothing changes. Flights still land in town, and the 2027 start date already looks unlikely, since Perez’s own estimate puts construction in 2029 or 2030. There’s no public sign of a private investor, and the government hasn’t said how it would cover the funding gap.
For residents and anyone buying property on the island, the things to watch are whether the government confirms or denies that the town airport would close. Keep an eye out for a construction loan or a private company signing on too, because until one of those happens, nobody is building anything.
